


Despair's Final Elimination

by JoyVampire



Series: Total Drama vs Dangan Ronpa [4]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Total Drama (Cartoon), Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race
Genre: Amnesia, Backstory, Blood, Bonding, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Competition, Free Time Events, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Recovered Memories, References to anime, Resurrection, Secrets, Swearing, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2020-01-16 14:40:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 27
Words: 97,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18523606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyVampire/pseuds/JoyVampire
Summary: Senior year at Neo Hope’s Peak Academy. Or at least, that’s what everyone thought.In a sudden change of plans, in one final bid to keep the fans engaged, Chris McLean announces plans for one final all-star season, enlisting the help of contestants and students (along with one new student) to demo an array of challenges for potential use in the series. But taking place behind the scenes are a series of events which seek to put a dampener on Chris’ plans. And Tomoko’s problems with her amnesia only seem to make the situation worse.Amidst the past mysteries, a disappearance, and the return of some familiar faces, it becomes a group effort to find the truth before it’s too late. Who is responsible for these events? Will the motley crew of reality TV stars uncover the remaining mysteries surrounding Hope’s Peak Academy, or will the obstacles in their way lead to their elimination?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Finally, the last part of this series is underway! Updates should be every Friday or Saturday, with maybe a double-update here and there. Most of these chapters will have a quote of some kind in the summary box, just to make naming them that little bit easier (and later on, give the reader a better feel for the mood of the chapter).  
> Only a brief prologue to begin with, just so I can get it out of the way.  
> For anyone whose bothering to read this, I hope you enjoy it - there's a brief synopsis on the Behind the Scenes work I've posted; those who've read everything in the series so far, I hope you enjoy it more than the last three!

The dark Canadian sky loomed over the dilapidated nameless city, which acted as the home to what many now called the Neo Hope’s Peak Academy. It wasn’t officially an international branch, yet at the same time wasn’t considered the “core” Hope’s Peak. Located near the far end of the city, about a five-minute bike ride from the academy, was a building that nobody seemed to know about, if the fact that nobody had been rebuilding there was anything to go by. If you were to go past there, however, you’d be surprised when you saw a black seven-seater car parked outside.

The building itself was the average size of two houses wall to wall, but its condition was so horrifically dangerous that a person wouldn’t dare venture on the next floor up. The layout of the interior itself was one large room and a smaller room in the back, a staircase against the wall that divides the two. Currently in the large room was fifteen beds, plus a cardboard box in the corner, opposite one of the beds. All fifteen of them were occupied currently, but only one of them was still awake _and_ alive.

The boy spun a black flash drive in his fingers a few times before plugging it into a laptop that rested on his lap. He glanced at the deceased boy in the bed across from him sadly, then the sleeping girl next to that one, and the source of the overly loud snoring that came from the bed directly beside him, before returning his attention to the laptop screen. A very long string of green code started flying down the display. The boy just looked at it in confusion – he was a detective, not a programmer!

Nonetheless, it was what he’d been told to expect, so all he could do was smile hopefully.

* * *

 

During this exchange, at Hope’s Peak, headmaster Makoto Naegi looked down at two sheets of paper, and then at the other two people stood in the room: two girls slightly younger than him.

“I’m sorry to discuss this so late at night, but your requests were both very sudden, and the new year starts tomorrow.”

One girl was stood directly in front of the headmaster’s desk. She had gold-coloured hair pulled into a ponytail that ended just below her neck, pink eyes, and a pair of square-rimmed glasses covering them. The second girl, a blonde, was sat in a chair near the back, looking a combination of tired and nervous.

“Firstly, Asakawa-san. There’s a space that’s been opened up in Class 2, Byakuya Togami’s class. Is that okay with you?”

“Any class is fine.” It was one of two classes she was hoping to have been assigned to, but this one had higher priority in her mind.

“I know that you were recommended by Kirigiri-san, whatever the reason I don’t know, but if it’s something to do with her detective work, please try and keep it hidden from the other students.”

“I will, Naegi-san!” This Asakawa girl replaced the other girl in the seat at the back.

“Alright…you haven’t mentioned any particular class you want to be a part of. Is there any?”

The blonde pondered for a moment. “Anywhere would be fine. As long as it’s far away from Junko, Heather and Sammy.”


	2. Hope of Autumn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new face and a familiar face arrive at the Neo Hope's Peak for the final year, and Tomoko struggles to fully suppress the issue of her amnesia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone just coming into this series now, there's a brief synopsis of the whole series on the Behind the Scenes work.

Senior year. A time of both happiness and sadness: happiness that your school life is coming to an end, but also a sadness of going separate ways from people you’ve known for years. Right now, a majority of the students were settling with the happiness side.

Most of the school’s population were chattering with each other eagerly, about things like exams, future jobs, or just what they’d been up to over the summer.

One student who wasn’t doing this was Tomoko, still dealing with what she’d been told last year. Sure, amnesia was something she could only just deal with, but…

_“The whole rehabilitation plan, reviving the deceased students…it was all your idea.”_

Hard to believe someone like her could have done something like that so easily. She still believed it was all fake, but why would Kyoko lie about something that big? Granted, she had lied about the last two years of investigating.

“So, now that all the fun’s out of the way,” Shinjiro said to his sister, “how’s the memory recovering going?”

“It isn’t really. The only thing that came back over the break was that I stayed in the house a lot between seasons of Total Drama. Yours?”

“Almost everything’s back, but I still feel like something’s missing.”

“Something serious?”

“Who knows?” Before he could keep going on about his situation, Shinjiro leaned in closer to Tomoko’s face. “You okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You’re kinda pale this morning.”

“It’s fine. Probably all those movie days with Ibuki…or rather, movie _nights_.”

Speak of the devil…

“Tomoko-chan!”

“Yo, Hara!”

Ibuki and Leon threw an arm over each of her shoulders, with Kitty poking her head round Ibuki. “Morning Kuwata-kun, Ibuki. And how many times do I tell you not to call me Hara?”

“We were just debating over who you’ve picked for Battle of the Bands?”

Over the holidays, Ibuki had come up with an idea for a Battle of the Bands, in response to which she’d immediately called Makoto begging for him to allow the idea. And following on from that, both she and Leon had been trying to decide on/fighting over whose band Tomoko was going to be on – either ditching the originals and leaving them without a guitarist, or leaving the girls as a duo.

“I’ve told you like five times…I’m sticking with Ibuki and Kitty.”

“You’re sure I can’t call you back to us? I’ll make you dinner for a week.”

“Living off of instant ramen and cola is a recipe for disaster.”

“Heh. Recipe…”

“Great. Now we need to find either another guitar player or singer!”

“Leon, it isn’t until the end of the year. You don’t have to get mad about it.”

_For now,_ Tomoko thought, _I just need to pretend everything’s normal. And somehow, I doubt it’ll be that easy._

While the seven of them walked towards the school, a different group was once again one member short. And Sayaka was once again down about it.

“Maizono-san…do we _really_ have to go through all this again?” In a frustrated tone, Junko said what was on everyone’s minds.

“Sorry, but still…”

“Jeez, we’re in the 21st century! What ever happened to texting?”

Sayaka just sighed, looking quite upset. Junko just rolled her eyes. “Ugh, we’re going ahead. See you in class.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

As Junko’s little clique walked towards the entrance hall, Leon came running back over to his girlfriend, noting her abnormal down mood.

“You okay, Sayaka-chan?”

“Yeah. It’s just Tess…up and leaving again.”

“Again?” Leon scratched his head. “Okay, you’re probably gonna hit me for sayin’ this. Sure, you guys are close, but if she does this without even telling you, she isn’t worth it.”

“Well, I guess that’s a fair point.”

“And besides, you have Enoshima’s group – as annoying as they are at times – but also Kitty, Mioda, Hara, Shinji, Ian, and of course,” he pointed two thumbs at himself, “your super cool, punk rock boyfriend!”

This was enough to get Sayaka laughing. “You’re right. It’s stupid to worry about it too much. Come here.”

The two musicians shared a kiss, ignoring the “get a room” that somebody – Duncan – yelled from behind them.

Leon, however, was quick to retaliate. “At least we’re not sucking face like your skater flake classmates!” Once Duncan and the people he was with were further away, the couple couldn’t help but share a small laugh. “See? Told ya we’re all you need!”

“Uh, excuse me?” They were interrupted from their more uplifting moment by a woman who looked around about the same age as Sayaka, who both of them had never seen before. She was in the standard Hope’s Peak uniform with zero alterations, and she herself had brown & gold hair in a messy ponytail, pale pink eyes and a pair of geek-style glasses on. “Do you know anyone in Class 2? It’s my first day.”

“Oh, hello. Yes, I am,” Sayaka said. “Are you a student at the old Hope’s Peak? A Total Drama contestant?”

“No, actually. I’m a former friend of Kirigiri-san, so she invited me to study here for a year.”

“Ah, well,” Sayaka extended a hand. “SHSL Idol, Sayaka Maizono.”

“And I’m Leon Kuwata, SHSL…Baseball Star.”

“Oh, you don’t need to introduce yourselves. I already know who you two are!”

“Well, who are you?”

The girl took Sayaka’s hand and shook it. “SHSL Journalist, Miku Asakawa.”

…

By lunchtime, it was clear that Miku had managed to (somehow) integrate with Sayaka’s group in place of Tess, and she appeared to be getting along with the popular girls. Well, as the bare minimum, they didn’t consider her a loser. Tomoko couldn’t help but watch from her table, as she waited for Kitty and Ibuki to get their food. In the meantime, she was talking to another one of her friends who was passing by.

“How come you were late into school this morning? Was there a problem?”

“Not at all, Fukuhara-kun! I had an important phone call to wait for.”

“What about? University?”

“No, to do with a job. In the end it never came, so I shall have to call them myself after school.”

“Well, if you’re sure, I’ll see you later then.”

Then as Kiyotaka left, a more unexpected student took his place.

“Are Class 5 a cool class or what?”

“What? Amy?!” Tomoko stood up. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?”

“I wanted to keep it as a surprise, duh.” Amy dropped her bag onto her seat as she hugged her friend. “Anyway, mind if I sit here?”

“Sure, there’s enough seats.”

Amy pulled out a red lunch bag from her old Hope’s Peak school bag, taking the seat opposite.

“So, what talent did they give you in the end?”

“It’s still a WIP. Cheerleader’s already taken, Gymnast’s taken…it may take a while since Chris still comes up with them for us.”

“I’m sure it’ll come through eventually. Off topic, how’s your hand?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah.” She showed Tomoko her palm, which had two feint hole shaped markings on them. “Holes are gone, but it looks like the scar’s forever.”

“And by the way…a cool class? You should have been in there for first year. All they did was binge anime instead of any actual lessons.”

“Does Mr. Kizakura always show up drunk?”

“Yep. Apparently, he has a stash of whiskey and sake under his desk. But anyway, how are things going in the class? Where are you staying?”

“Well I was in that cruddy apartment block last night, since I only just got here, but I’m going to move into one of the dorms by the end of the week. As for the class…I only really spoke to Beth & Sonia, and decked Teruteru in the face when he started perving.”

“Not Shinjiro level like on the orientation day?”

“At least _that_ was accidental. So, sorry if there’s any nose blood in the food in the future.”

“Guess I’m making my own bento lunches for the rest of my life.”

“Well hello stranger.” Ibuki and Kitty appeared behind Tomoko’s seat. “Didn’t expect you to be back here.”

“Yeah, why _did_ you drop out of college? I thought you liked it.”

“I did, but as you can probably guess, not many people want to associate with the asshole twin sister of Total Drama. They’re going to keep sending the work over so I can finish the course, and they’ve said I’m still welcome to meet the cheer squad every so often. I don’t think I will, though. Sure it was fun, but I didn’t really become friends with anyone I was with – class or cheer squad.”

“At least here, you have Ibuki and the rest of us!”

“Good thing you came to that summer festival, after all.”

Tomoko went for the drink of water in her lunchbox. “With that out the way, here’s to Amy…uh…”

“Prescott.”

“Amy Prescott, the latest member of our group.”

The four girls clinked bottles/cups.

…

All the warm milk and extra exercise in the world couldn’t help Tomoko get any sleep that night. All throughout the summer, the things that Ibuki had wanted to do with her and everyone else served as the perfect distraction for her amnesia problems during the day, even though it often meant that nothing new came back until night…if at all. And that led to the odd late night spent journaling it and trying to figure out more.

Returning to school and even being near Future Foundation members had caused a large crash back into reality, and caused Tomoko to stay up in the hopes of a miracle the first night back. Her journal was open to the first empty page, ready to start scribbling the moment something came.

She was disturbed from her thoughts by her phone buzzing on her desk. She closed her journal, stashing it away and picking the phone up to see who was calling her. On her screen was a picture of a blonde teenager wearing a black cheer uniform with orange highlights, her hair held up in an orange ribbon.

“What does Amy want?” She answered the call. “Hello?”

“ _Hey, sorry. Just wanted to let you know I’ve moved into the dorms early.”_

“Less cruddy than the apartment?”

“Way _less cruddy. Once again nobody really noticed me, so I just feel like talking to someone for a while. You don’t mind, right?”_

Tomoko glanced to the clock. “Of course not, feel free.”

_Well if it isn’t the amnesia that keeps me up past 1:34am, it_ will _be her_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Amy gets more involved around the academy, and Tomoko meets some more familiar faces.


	3. Life is Sweet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _When you’re growing up so fast_  
>  _You gotta make the good times last_  
>  _\- 6teen_
> 
> Amy finds a hobby within the academy, and some familiar faces arrive back in the area.

“What’s this all about?”

Amy was referring to the sheet of paper tacked outside the music room, which had a few signatures on it already.

“Ibuki’s arranging a Battle of the Bands for later on in the year, so I guess a few people are already signed up. I haven’t seen who else, if anyone, has yet.”

Of course, the Light Music Club (now facing the same situation that used to be felt by Leon’s band – being left nameless) were top of the list, with Punk Division underneath. From the looks of things, Leon was covering the guitar as well as vocals. The Drama Brothers appeared to have decided to get back together again for the event, and the fourth one was called the Amazon Psychotic Crazies.

“Heather, Gwen and Courtney? I thought they hated each other by this point.”

“Don’t look into it too much.”

“I see you’re going to be part of it.”

“Yeah, well, with a leader like Ibuki, do you really have a choice in the matter?”

“What kind of things do you even do?”

Tomoko started counting them off on her fingers. “Eh, outside of practicing music…costume design, having breaks with cake & coffee, learning about the importance of unity between band members…”

“Hm. That’s unexpected.”

“…messing with the loudspeakers, headbanging contests, and breaking guitars.”

“And that _is_ what I expected to hear. Sounds like it’s all a lot of fun.”

“You want to join?”

“What? Uh, well, I was just saying…I don’t even think I’d be eligible to join. I don’t play any instruments.”

“Kitty didn’t, but thanks to Ibuki, she learned how to play the drums.” Tomoko pondered for a moment. “Can you sing? We need a second singer – one who has a more typical pop voice rather than Ibuki’s screamo-stuff-of-nightmares rock voice.”

“I could give it a try, I guess.”

Tomoko opened the door to the music room, motioning for Amy to get onto the stage. “Alright then, hit me.”

Amy took a moment to think of a song to demo with, eventually muttering an “okay” to herself and walked up to the microphone, despite it not even being turned on. She cleared her throat and started:

_Life begins after school That’s when we bend all the rules Time to hang with all my friends We like to be together In a place where we belong_

_I’m sixteen, starting to find my way Live for tomorrow, don’t forget about yesterday Thank God I’m on my own for the first time I’m sixteen, life is sweet When you’re growing up so fast You gotta make the good times last_

Purely out of courtesy, Tomoko applauded her performance, which all things considered, was pretty damn good. It was nowhere near on the same level as Sayaka or Courtney, but good, nonetheless.

“So, how was it?”

“I liked it. No idea if you’ll keep up with our genre, but I think you stand a fighting chance.”

“Meaning…?”

“Meaning this.” Tomoko stood up and walked to the other side of the door. Amy ran off to join her there, seeing her writing something on the list: _Amy – vocals_.

“Wait, really?”

“Meetings are purely irregular, and songs are mostly rock-based. If you don’t have Chihiro’s app I suggest downloading it – that’s where Ibuki sends out most of the updates. Best of luck to you.”

“Eeeee! I finally have something to do around here!”

“Hey guys!” Kitty came up to join them, with Ibuki close on her tail. “What’s going on?”

“Here’s our new singer, just like you two wanted.”

“Wait, you can sing?”

“Kind of.”

Tomoko coughed. “Understatement.”

“So, Ibuki has an offer for you two. We’re planning a trip out in a few weeks with a really big group of people!”

“The two of you?”

“No can do,” Kitty said. “I promised to go out with Emma on that day.”

“Then who, exactly?”

“Kiyotaka-chan, Mondo-chan, Chihiro-chan, Sayaka-chan, Leon-chan, Ian-chan, Shinjiro-chan, and Miku-chan.”

“Miku? Is she the new girl?”

“Yep, she’s become close with Ian-chan’s group. Hey Amy-chan, you should come along too!”

“What? Uh, thanks but I’m good. I’m not that close to anyone else, and I highly doubt any of that lot would even want me around.”

“Fair enough. Also, welcome to the Light Music Club! Let’s get started!”

…

Following almost an hour of trying to get the type of voice Ibuki was looking for, Amy had a very hoarse throat, requiring the water that everyone had on them to fix it.

“Okay, Ibuki deems today’s meeting a success! But before we head home for the day, Ibuki wants to see Amy do some kind of cheerleading trick!”

“What, really? You know the kind I’ve done extends beyond pom poms and simple cartwheels?”

“Yeah, which is why we asked.”

“Unless you _can’t_ …”

The snarky comment from the grinning Tomoko was quite unexpected, but enough to convince Amy to do something.

“Okay, fine.” Amy slid her blazer off, resting it on the edge of the stage and undoing the top two buttons of her blouse. “Unless you want to fork up cash for new equipment, you better help clear some room.”

The other three girls helped to push some of the keyboards out of the way, making a clear path to the door. Starting at the front of the stage, Amy broke out into a brief sprint, springing onto her hands after three steps. She used them to push her body further forward, completing two flips before launching into a mid-air twist, successfully landing before colliding with the door.

Her three new friends applauded at the skill shown, Kitty adding in the odd “whoop”.

“That was fantastic!”

“Woah. Colour me impressed!”

“I wanna give it a try!”

Amy started buttoning her shirt again. “I dunno, Kit. Sammy and I’ve been doing this kind of thing since we were three.”

“Well I’m now a black belt in fusion kickboxing-yoga. I think I have the flexibility to pull it off.”

“Okay,” she shrugged and returned to the others. “Suit yourself.”

Kitty cast her own blazer next to Amy’s, not bothering to start her attempt with a run and going straight into a flip. Unfortunately, after the first one, one of her boots fell off her foot and landed in her path. Clearly not expecting this, her hand slipped on the boot as she went for the second flip, messing up her concentration and causing her to land hard on her side. Despite the pain, she couldn’t help but laugh at the failed attempt, and it wasn’t long before the others did the same.

“Tried to warn you.”

“It was the boot’s fault, not mine!”

“Riiight~”

At that moment, the door opened, with Chisa stood behind it. “Oh, all of you are still here.”

“Yukizome-san,” Tomoko was the first to notice her. “What are you doing here?”

“Well for starters, the day’s long over. I think there are people waiting for you girls outside.”

“How long?”

“Ten minutes.” That was all it took for the group to pack their things up and run for the front gate. Well, technically three of them, as Chisa’s hand on Tomoko caused her to wait behind.

“Oh, is there a problem?”

Chisa lightly pushed her back into the music room, motioning for her to sit on one of the stools. “I won’t keep you that long. I just need to tell you something in private.” She herself took the stool next to her.

“Is this anything to do with…you know what?”

“A little bit. What Kirigiri-san may not have told you is that the program you commissioned is still being kept hidden away at Future Foundation. However, after another killing game took place, a member gave one of the survivors a part of it, in order to attempt to revive their deceased classmates. I thought maybe if you went to talk to them about it, you may be able to find out more. Of course, you don’t have to.”

“Please, I’ll take anything right now.” She picked up her bag.

“Well, alright then. Here’s where they are.” Chisa gave her a sheet of paper with the co-ordinates. “I’ll clear up in here.”

“Thanks, Yukizome-san. I promise to be back in class tomorrow.”

* * *

 

It surprised Tomoko how close to the NHPA the group were staying, but still it wasn’t a close enough distance to convince her to walk. Instead, she dumped her bag in the front porch of her house, then took a bike for the 10-minute journey to the location.

The building itself was one of the places untouched during preparations for the project, evident by the fact that one bad spell of weather could cause the whole thing to fall apart. However, there were some hints to the fact that people were staying there outside – a battered looking 4x4 vehicle, something made to look like a martial arts dummy, and a bin that was already close to overflowing. Tomoko hadn’t been told what to expect, so she just had to roll with whatever came at her.

Setting her bike against the dummy, she walked up to the door, knocking gently in case it fell off its hinges, but loud enough for someone to hear. A few seconds passed before somebody answered, and it was somebody she vaguely recognised.

“Hello? Oh, are you perhaps Tomoko Fukuhara-san?”

It was a young woman dressed in a maid’s uniform decorated with various spider & spiderweb designs. She gave off a vibe of maturity, but also appeared a little scary from the clothing.

“Uh, yes. Sorry, who are you?”

“Kirumi Tojo, former SHSL Maid of the 79th Class of Hope’s Peak Academy.”

“79th Class? Wait, that’s where I recognise you from! You and your classmates were at the festival two years ago!”

“I do not remember the two of us having met in person, however.”

“No, don’t think we did.” Tomoko then noticed her oddly pale and clammy skin, or rather what was visible of her skin. “Everything okay?”

Kirumi checked behind Tomoko to see whether anyone else was nearby. “Come inside. We’ll explain everything.”

“We?”

Kirumi let Tomoko go ahead of her into the building, the intern opting to leave her shoes on in case of bits on the floor. Walking past a staircase that looked like it couldn’t even withstand Cameron’s weight, she entered a large room with fifteen beds and a cardboard box. Five of the students appeared to be asleep, two were sat upright in their beds talking with other people, one was perched on the edge of her bed messing with whatever was in the box, and all the rest were on the move.

“Tojo-san, I told you not to overwork yourself yet!” A hoarse female voice said to the maid.

“My apologies. All I want is to ensure everyone is recovering well enough.”

“Well in this situation, can’t you care about yourself just once?”

“Tenko is happy to chip in in your place!”

“I…appreciate the thought, but--”

“Hm? Who’s that?”

The shortest one in the group glanced to the person behind Kirumi, who appeared to be watching the group in thought. She stepped to the side in order for her classmates to see Tomoko better. She still had no clue exactly what was going on here or, if Chisa was being honest, _how_ they ended up in this situation. “Uh, it’s been a while…for some of you, anyway.”

“Fukuhara? Is that you?”

…

She’d spent the next five minutes greeting everyone and recapping on names, finally able to place them to each student.

Now she was sat on Kaede’s bed with her still under the covers. Opposite her, Angie was stood between Himiko & Tenko’s beds, with Shuichi next to them. Maki and Kaito were directly to the left of Kaede/Tomoko, Kirumi had returned to her own bed between Tenko & Ryoma, and Miu was still facing away from them. The remaining five – Gonta, Tsumugi, Korekiyo, Rantaro and Kokichi – were still unconscious and unresponsive.

“So, according to Yukizome-san, you were all involved in a…a…”

“Killing game? It’s not going to offend anyone if you say it.”

“Right. I’m just used to keeping it secret from everyone.” Tomoko shifted her position. “So what the hell happened with you guys? How did it even happen?”

Shuichi was the one who answered. “Unlike with the 78th Class, we weren’t all together before it happened. We were all in roughly the same place when we were put into it, though.”

“Heh, speak for yourself, _Dasaihara_!” Miu yelled from where she was.

“E-except for Iruma-san. The old Hope’s Peak was subject to a series of attacks, so any students who survived – which was most of us this time – were evacuated to a refuge area up north. When whoever was behind it came for us, the new schools we were part of were attacked too. I haven’t had a chance to find out what happened since then.”

“I take it none of you know who’s behind this, then?”

“Unfortunately not. Well, so far. We need to discuss it further when everyone’s here.”

“On a related note, how’d you guys even get hold of the program? And how does it even work?”

“Angie thought that Tomoko was the one who created it?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Someone from Future Foundation gave it to us when we were saved. They knew one of us in the past.”

Miu cleared her throat.

Maki groaned. “They knew _Iruma_.” She then turned to the inventor who still paid the group no notice. “Either you’re involved in the conversation or you aren’t.”

“Anyway,” Himiko continued instead of Shuichi, “Saihara was told _how_ to use it, but we had no clue how it actually worked. That’s probably why some of them are still out.”

“It’s likely dependent on the injuries and causes of death.” Maki glanced to Rantaro, still unconscious. “Amami’s death was instant, so it could take days more for him to wake up, as was Shirogane’s. The other three suffered very severe wounds in the process.”

“And people like Tojo-san, Hoshi-kun and I,” Kaede said, keeping her voice down, “weren’t drastically affected, but we can’t do much for a while.”

“Despite what you may have seen,” Ryoma flatly added, indicating Kirumi.

“The rest were up and about within minutes. I’m not even exaggerating.”

“Yet despite being able to revive everyone,” Shuichi finally took over again, “we couldn’t heal the wounds themselves.”

To prove their points, a couple of people showed off some of the scars they had – Tenko’s fleshy sickle wound on the back of her neck, some scratches on Kirumi’s hands & arms and so on.

“You guys…don’t appear to have many problems talking about everything.” Tomoko was surprised. It’s not like they were remembering the situation with a happy face, but she’d expected more awkwardness and hesitation. “I don’t want to ruin things, but some of you were murdered by your classmates. How can you take all this so lightly?”

The ten went quiet for a moment, even Miu momentarily stopping what she was doing. The sudden change in atmosphere caused Tomoko to feel guilty.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Like I said, I didn’t mean to--”

“And you didn’t. We just somehow never thought of that.”

“We just talked about the killing game and what went on as each of them came back. We don’t intend on hiding anything from the rest of them. Honestly, telling them the truth there and then would prevent a load of issues in the future.”

_Well it’s going to be_ super fun _when the 78 th Class learn the truth, if that’s the case._

“Hey,” Tomoko said, trying to ignore the dark thoughts in her head. “You said you can’t do anything about the injuries themselves, and that Tojo-san isn’t in the best shape to be doing anything, right? No offence.”

“None taken.”

“Well, if you need some extra help around here, I’d be happy to do something. There’s someone in the area who could make any drugs you need, and if you need help getting extra food too. Saves you an extra job.”

“That would help us a lot while Tojo-san recovers a little more.”

“Are you sure it won’t be too much trouble for you?”

“Of course not. The teachers didn’t show up for a month of classes, so it shouldn’t matter if I miss a few days here and there.”

“I don’t think we need too much help, but even a little would be appreciated. Thank you.”

“Like I said, no problem. Anyway,” she stood up from her bed, “I should probably be going now. The others may be wondering where I am.”

“Here.” Shuichi passed a series of notes to Tomoko as she made her way to the door. “It’s the details of what happened to us, as well as the instructions for the program. Yukizome-san said you might need them.”

“I do. Thanks, Saihara-kun.”

Having left her bag at home, she put the sheets under her arm as she went back to her bike. “I’ll be back with supplies soon, okay?”

Once the bike was out of sight, Shuichi looked over to Kaede. “All this time around the other students, and nobody knows what happened?”

“It wouldn’t seem so.”

“Not even our killing game made it into the news.”

“And Shirogane-san even said it was being streamed worldwide. That _is_ what she told you, right?”

Shuichi nodded before looking back out the door, being able to see the academy in the distance. “So that _was_ a lie, huh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: the news is passed on, and a not-so-serious mystery comes up


	4. Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things look up for the 79th Class, Tomoko shares her findings with Kyoko, and gets confused by a change in Kiyotaka's schedule.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a reference to SDRA2 (a DR fan-game by LINUJ) in it.

“Saihara-san gave you these?”

“Yep. Shinjiro and Ian saw me get home afterwards, so I haven’t had the chance to look at them yet. All I know from when I saw the class is who lived and died, but not who killed. They didn’t even know who was behind it.”

“If you wouldn’t mind, could we look over it now?”

“After the pictures you showed me in May, I’m very frightened.” Tomoko sighed. “Okay, let’s just get this over with.”

She turned the page over, reading over the details. There was nothing overly graphic written down, just the basic details. But the lack of graphic-ness was more than compensated for by the absurdity of some of the deaths: eaten by piranhas during a magic show, boiled alive and having their ghost exorcised, killed as part of a ritual to revive the dead…

Yeah, out of everything she’d encountered since becoming a part of Total Drama, this took the cake. If anything, _these_ killings seemed like a dumb parody.

“Kirigiri-san? You may have convinced me that everything else was real, but I don’t really know if I have it in me to believe…this. Even though I witnessed the victims for myself.”

“I can understand where you’re coming from in this case.”

“On the bright side, there’s no pictures that go with this one. I don’t know how I feel about seeing Shinguji-kun being boiled alive.”

Kyoko, being Kyoko, wasn’t focused on the nonsensical nature of the deaths, but rather the more minute details listed.

“It says that in the final trial, Tsumugi Shirogane turned out to be the mastermind.”

“Does that mean they were lying when they said they didn’t know who was behind it?”

“Who knows until she’s alive again. There’s a possibility that Shirogane-san was used by another organisation. Why else would they have chosen to save her?”

“That’s a good point. After she’s recovered enough, should I ask?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.” Kyoko began rifling for a particular sheet from next to her. “But don’t go straight in with it.”

It was then that Tomoko notices the large, slightly leaning pile of sheets beside Kyoko. On the top of the stack was the open folder containing information of the former Student Council.

“Noticed something about the killing game they were in?”

“Yes. Or rather, a similarity to another one.” Kyoko pushed the folder over to Tomoko. “I told you before that I’d spotted some discrepancies in this information. While looking back over everything, I noticed a similarity between this killing game and a previous one.”

“A…previous one? I thought you said that was the first one.”

“At Hope’s Peak, it was.” She handed an old newspaper article over, too. “There was a very similar one at a different high school – Gunma Prefectural Shibutani High School. Enoshima-san’s old school. According to the report, it had one or two students from every class participate, and only one person emerged from the killings alive. After they were saved, they understandably left the school. Nobody knows what happened to them after that.”

Tomoko quickly looked for a certain name from the Student Council. “Maybe it’s like in the case of Murasame-kun. They could have been killed by Enoshima-san afterwards, maybe because they knew something.”

“It’s a possibility, but what can you do? There’s no telling if any students from the school even survived the Tragedy.”

Tomoko just dropped the folder, coming up short on any further theories.

“However I don’t see any reason for you to concern yourself with anything like this. Instead I’ll ask, how are your memories returning to you?”

Tomoko slouched in her seat a little. “They aren’t really. I only got one thing which I probably could have worked out by myself. Shinjiro thinks he’s got everything back but still feels like something’s missing.”

“I see.”

“Know any ways how I could speed things up?”

“You were given a box, right? Have you even looked through its contents?”

“…no.” While Kyoko’s expression didn’t change, she could tell she was annoyed. “But in my defence, it was too much to take in at the time.”

“I suggest looking through it. You never know what might come back to you.”

“Are you implying something? Do you know what’s in there?”

“No, I don’t. Only Togami-kun and your boss know.”

A knock at the door abruptly brought the subject of conversation away from the amnesia.

“You can go now. I’ve kept you long enough for today.”

Tomoko collected her things and opened the door, almost bumping into the girl waiting on the other side.

“Oh, Miku-san? You’re here?”

“It’s been a while, Fukuhara-san.”

They shared a smile with each other, before they both went off in separate directions. Miku took the seat previously occupied by Tomoko.

“Ooh, still warm. How long’s she been here for?”

“A while. How exactly did you know Fukuhara-san?”

“We knew each other when I was younger. My mom used to teach her English.”

“Ah, I see. So it isn’t just your parents then? But anyway, what is it you needed?”

“It’s…somewhat related to that. I was just wondering…is everything okay with my mom? I mean, she was there during the attacks on Future Foundation, and still haven’t heard anything from her.”

Kyoko cast her colleague a soft smile, placing her gloved hand over one of hers. “You don’t have to worry, she’s perfectly fine. She’s had some other problems to deal with in the refuge area, keeping her a little too busy.”

“Oh, I see. Well, thank you, Kirigiri-san.”

“And now that I have you here, there are some things I need to update you on.”

…

Pushing a series of boxes and other surplus junk aside under her bed, Tomoko eventually found the box from last year. What with the revelation of her involvement with the project, she’d not been in any real mood to look in the box, but right now she’d do absolutely anything to learn more about her past.

She set the box onto her bed, took in a breath, and opened it.

Only to find next to nothing in line with any missing memories.

There was a driving licence (proving that she was older than she’d first thought), a pale blue, slightly dusty photo album, and a slightly bulging envelope with Japanese writing on the front. With nothing else to help in there, she just decided to open the envelope, not bothering to read it first. She tipped it upside down, and ¥700,000 fell onto her bed covers, equalling just over $8,000.

“Holy…” She flipped the envelope over in order to read what was written on it, and was mildly surprised to find where it came from:

_Best of luck in Canada. Father._

“Woah. I remembered I got something from them but not this much! And why didn’t I ever spend this?!” She dropped it. "But this doesn't help anything."

At that moment, she heard movement near her door and hurriedly pushed the notes back into the envelope, before hiding it back in the box.

* * *

 

The second time she’d met with the 79th Class, Tomoko had brought a selection of drugs from Seiko, which were intended to help with some of the more serious injuries. She shared Kyoko’s thoughts in relation to the killings with Shuichi. Nobody else had woken up, but the three bed-ridden ones were able to walk around without causing a ton of worry.

The third time, Korekiyo and Rantaro were awake, with Tsumugi coming to halfway through her visit. Tomoko took notice of the new problems each of them had to deal with, the latter two suffering intense headaches, in order to find the right drugs to help with it. Thankfully, the drugs they had already helped Kaede’s throat and vocal cords – she just couldn’t talk very loudly, not that she did that an awful lot.

And now during her fourth visit, a week and a half after the first one, Gonta was awake again, bringing the number to fourteen. The atmosphere was an awful lot lighter than before, most of the classmates talking with one another easily. Tomoko could notice a slight amount of hostility between Tenko and Korekiyo, on the part of the former, but on the whole, everything was fine. Most of the class were resting while she was there.

So here she was, sat once again with Kaede, sipping a cup of tea from Kirumi, and being forced to listen to Kaito ramble about some story from Hope’s Peak.

“So there was this firefighter who I’d always go out for drinks with – Kasai, his name was. Hell of a guy. I’d always drag Shuichi with me, and he’d bring the SHSL Lucky Student in his class. And every time we went out, two of his other female classmates would be in the bar. One was a hostess; the other was a master billiards player.”

“A hostess. But aren’t all of you underage?”

“It’s a long story. They also had a pair of twins who formed a pop group, some famous actress, even another boxer who challenged Sakakura to a match!”

“But who ended up winning?”

“Sakakura. It took one left hook with his metal arm and the poor guy was out cold for days.”

“Ouch…but they all sound like a cool class.”

“You bet they were! Their teacher was essentially the male version of one of your teachers…uh, what was it? Yuko…”

“Yukizome-san,” Shuichi said, focused on the laptop in front of him.

“Yeah, that’s the one!” Kaito continued. “They also had this guy with another space related talent.”

“I thought they didn’t do that to avoid confusion, especially in the same grade.”

“After everything that happened, they just let anyone in who had talent, regardless of any clashes.”

“Momota, you do realise she didn’t agree to helping us, just so she could listen to you go on about a group of students who may not even be alive anymore?”

“No, it’s fine, Harukawa-san. It’s actually interesting to hear about what you guys got up to.”

“Even though the story isn’t so much of a story as it is listing their talents. And none of us are a part of it.”

“How about you and the others, Fukuhara? You guys been up to anything interesting?”

“Do you mean _everyone_ , or _just_ Ishimaru-kun and I? Because as far as I know, we’re the only two people you met during the festival.”

“No one in particular, just anything.”

“Okay, well, Kuwata-kun and Maizono-san are a couple now. We had to spend the whole year helping him through whatever woes he may have had. And by we, I mean my brother and Ian.” She paused for a moment. “Uh…wow, my social activity is actually a lot less than I thought. That was essentially the only really noteworthy thing that happened last year for me.”

“You can ask them yourself,” Shuichi said to his friend. “I’ve just received confirmation from Yukizome-san. Naegi-kun’s letting us into the Neo Hope’s Peak when we’ve recovered enough.”

“You guys are going to be coming?”

“Like I said, once we’re able to hide all our injuries well enough.”

“Well that should be good. Sierra’s been wondering what happened to Shirogane-san since summer. Of course, none of you are going to tell her the truth, but still…”

“Uh, Fukuhara-san, speaking of which, don’t you have school now?”

“What? Is that the time already?!”

“You only have Momota to blame.”

“Harumaki!”

“No, I just got caught up. See you guys next time!”

…

“Goddamn it! Fifteen minutes late!”

Sprinting towards the school gates, it didn’t surprise her that nobody else was there. Sure, she didn’t mind helping the 79th Class out, but if it meant she was going to regularly miss class…okay, she said she didn’t care about that before, but then there was the likelihood of being interrogated about the reasoning behind it. While Chisa and, given recent developments, the 77th Class may understand it, the others wouldn’t. And they likely wouldn’t believe anything she did come up with, since she wasn’t normally that type.

“Thank goodness! I may not be late after all!”

Running up behind her was Kiyotaka, his uniform slightly dishevelled and a couple of folders poking out of his bag.

“Ishimaru-kun? Morning.

“Good morning…Fukuhara-kun…”

“Was there some kind of problem this morning? You’re awfully late today.”

Finally regaining his breath, Kiyotaka straightened up and sorted out his uniform. “Unintentionally of course! Our morning tutoring session seemed to run longer than expected.”

“Tutoring? Oh, I see, you found a new person to help already.”

“New? Oh, no, this is Shi-kun.”

“Shi, as in Shi from last year?”

“While she did pass the exams that I was helping her through, she asked if she could receive a brief amount of tutoring with her new course.”

“Ah. And…what is her new course?”

“Robotics. I don’t see why she would require my help – she’s proven to be incredibly gifted in the subject!”

“Do you even _know_ anything about robotics?”

“Hmm, not particularly, but I shall try my hardest! But what about you? How come you’re late?”

“Oh, uh…personal arrangements. It’s kinda complicated.”

“I see. Well, I hope it does not become a regular occurrence! Alright, I understand I shouldn’t be one to talk.”

“Hey, it isn’t the end of the world. Other than that leg injury, it hasn’t happened before, so don’t worry about it. Let’s just go before it gets later.”

While Tomoko had mostly let the tutoring thing go on the outside, things were different on the inside.

_Robotics?_ And _late to school? What’s really going on with him?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Kiyotaka's lateness becomes more of an issue, and Chris forms a new partnership


	5. A New Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tomoko addresses some of her concerns, and Chris puts his latest business plan into action.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains light but still explicit Total DramaRama bashing.

Over the course of the next three weeks, going into early October, things were starting to get boring. Still no new returning memories, no matter how late into the night she stayed up until. Still no sign of life from Kokichi. Still no further signs of recovery from the recently revived. And still no clue as to why Kiyotaka was coming in late almost every morning.

If it had been the one time, or even once per week, maybe Tomoko would have left things be. But the week after she’d first learned of the new job, there’d been three new days where he’d come running into class nearly half an hour late. Week two, he missed an entire period on three days. On another day, he didn’t come to school at all. From what she’d heard, Mondo and Chihiro weren’t concerned about what was happening, probably because they lived together, and he would have told them everything. The same couldn’t be said for her, however.

During one of the restless nights, with too many thoughts in the forefront of her mind, she had to think of something to occupy herself with. Going on the phone with Amy this late was a recipe for disaster, and the same applied with Ibuki. Shinjiro and Ian would be long asleep by now, and if Ian wasn’t then he’d no doubt be engrossed in writing. Despite never having witnessed it first-hand, she’d heard from her brother that some nights he’d be downing coffee after coffee to work on something.

So instead of waiting for more memories to fall into place, she chose to address her concerns with Kiyotaka.

Running downstairs for what must be her fiftieth warm milk in the last two weeks, she whipped out her phone and searched for Kiyotaka’s contact – rather than calling through Chihiro’s closed network, she decided to use his actual number in case Chihiro was able to trace what she said on the call.

After probably five rings, he surprisingly answered.

_“Fukuhara-kun? Is there some sort of problem?”_

“I just wanted to ask you about something.” She paused briefly to remove her milk from the microwave. “I’ve been a little worried.”

_“Is now really the ideal time to be bringing it up?”_

“Probably not. I just can’t sleep. But anyway, the point is I’m worried about _you_.”

_“Me?”_

“This whole tutoring thing. Even if you are busy with it, it doesn’t make sense why you’re missing so much school. Last week you missed a whole day!”

Kiyotaka sighed on the other end of the line. _“Really, it’s only down to distance. She lives a long way away from the academy, so sometimes it’s more difficult.”_

“Sometimes?” Tomoko muttered under her breath. “By the way, how come you’re still up? It was kind of a long shot you’d answer.”

_“I’m still finding it a little challenging to help Shi-kun with robotics tutoring, so I’m educating myself the best I can. It should help me gain a basic understanding of the subject.”_

“At almost midnight? Please don’t tell me this is a regular thing…”

_“Of course not! Well, sometimes I have a handful of later nights studying, more this time in order to prepare for the end of the year.”_

“Just don’t overwork yourself with all this. It won’t be any good for your health.” More milk. “At least you have that day out with everyone as a break.”

_“Oh, right. I’m afraid I can’t attend that anymore.”_

“Let me guess…more tutoring?” The silence on the other end was taken as a yes. “That chick has the most abnormal schedule ever. Well, if you want, we could meet up some time before that? Just us two? I just feel like we don’t really get much of a chance to in normal time anymore. Without Ibuki or Oowada-kun eavesdropping or reading too far into things, anyway.”

_“I would like that a lot! How about…the day before?”_

A quick glance to the calendar in the kitchen showed that would be the Saturday at the end of the week. “That sounds great. I’ll note it down.”

“ _Oh, wait! And if we are going to do this, then I may have some news to share with you by that point!”_

“What kind of news? Good? Bad?”

_“It’s a big secret until then, but I have a feeling you are going to like it!”_

“Okay then, I’ll take your word for it.”

_“Thank you for the offer, Fukuhara-kun. Hope you’re able to get some rest.”_

“You too. See you tomorrow.” Tomoko hung up. “I hope.”

In all fairness, she didn’t get any answers about Kiyotaka’s tardiness, which was the whole reason she’d called in the first place. But at least if she was meeting him in private soon, she could ask him and hopefully find out.

…

Another person who was having equally as rough a night was Chris. Despite not having any internal business when it came to the school, he was having problems of his own. Ones that could only be seen as serious if you _were_ Chris McLean.

“There better be a catastrophic reason for wakin’ me up this late!” Chef had been quite annoyed having been pulled into Chris’ office in the early hours of the morning.

“We have a crisis, Chef!”

“Did somebody find out the truth?”

“No, it’s worse!” He turned his laptop towards Chef, which showed a line chart display. The one line on the chart was doing a gradual nosedive. “Do you know what this is? Total Drama’s ratings! Ever since the end of Total Drama Academy, the number of viewers has only dropped. We can’t have that! Do you have any idea the emails we could get if we just up and end on Dave being mauled by a robot bear?!”

“Technically, it ended on that vlogger girl leaving the academy.”

“Which is why I’ve been brainstorming new ideas for a season! Check it!” Chris pushed over an open notebook. “We’ve got Total Drama: The Video Game – a season which takes place solely in VR, with all the challenges modelled after different console games. Almost like an alternate TDA, and it appeals to a wider audience, too.”

Chef mostly zoned out as Chris listed off more ideas for seasons, ranging from another version of World Tour, to a season with no teams, and another musical.

“Or better still, why don’t we do this: we have you temporarily become a daycare teacher, and we put a load of cameras in the classroom and see what the kids get up to.”

“That’s just beggin’ for disaster. And probably full of contracts.”

“Come on, we gotta think. Everyone’s leaving at the end of the year, so we need to find something new to milk the potential out of…”

“If you really want an increase in popularity, well it’s like you said. If everyone’s goin’, you should do another all-star season. It’ll be our last chance to do it, probably.”

“Chef, I’ve been up all tonight and last night coming up with something, so I think I have a better variety of ideas than what you can come up with.”

“Whatever, as long as it ain’t the daycare one.”

They both went silent for a moment, Chris thinking of more and Chef full of regret. That is, until Chris slammed his hands on the table and stood up.

“That’s it! I have the perfect season! If everybody’s leaving, then we should do another all-star season! After all, it’ll be my last chance to do it! Probably.”

Chef just groaned and walked to the door. “Why do I even bother?”

“But there’s still too many contestants to choose from…how am I supposed to pick the right number to call back for summer? Do we just bring back the finalists?”

“Just pick the popular ones who haven’t had any screen time.”

“Nah, Courtney will throw her lawyers at me again. How am I supposed to do this in a way that means I don’t endure any legal action? Hmm…why not call everyone back to an audition type thing? While at the same time demo-ing different challenges that could be used! Oh, and make it into another competition, with the winners being the ones who compete!”

“Chris, you’re overthinking all this. Besides, that Ridonculous Race show came out two years ago, and people seem to prefer that one a lot more…in general. More interesting contestants, a better host – their word, not mine. Face it, nothing you do new can ever top it. _Now_ can I go back to bed?”

Not waiting for an answer, Chef walked out of the room and left Chris sat at his desk. Instead of jotting down more ideas, he just smirked towards the door.

“That’s what you think.”

Rifling through his roll o’ decks, he eventually found the correct number, not having to wait long for an answer.

“Hey, newbie…I know, I never did congratulate you on your World Tour rip-off…yeah, it’s called “jumping aboard the bandwagon”…whatever. The reason I’m calling at this time is because I have a proposal for you, Don…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: the day out between Tomoko and Kiyotaka, with a couple of unforeseen obstacles...


	6. Do You Sleep At Night?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Did you hide it well?_  
>  _Did you quiet your breaths?_  
>  _Don't force yourself to change just because it's tough right now_  
>  _\- Yoru wa Nemureru kai?, Flumpool_
> 
> The meeting between Tomoko and Kiyotaka takes multiple turns for the worse, more so when a supposed ally comes looking for the intern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No idea whether or not I'll update on Wednesday or wait another week, since this one and the next one go together, but enjoy this one nonetheless.

Getting off the bus in town, Tomoko had everything she wanted to talk about ready in her head. Earlier in the week, they’d agreed that it would just be the two of them, and that they’d be going to a small café in Toronto.

Kiyotaka was already waiting for her, not too far away from the bus stop, underneath a street light so she could spot him easily. However, she became slightly concerned when she saw he had a hand to his head. In the limited light around the area, he appeared to have a pained expression on his face and was using a nearby wall for support.

The pictures of the killing game resurfaced.

“Ishimaru-kun!” Tomoko called out his name probably a little too loud, running towards him. Fortunately, she was able to regain her composure before he noticed. “Are you…uh, _have_ you been waiting for a while?”

“Only a few minutes. For a moment, however, I almost thought I wouldn’t have been able to make it.”

“How come? And do you have a headache or something?”

“You just answered your own question. It’s nothing too serious, don’t worry.”

“Alright…” Despite the fact that nothing seemed to be wrong with him _now_ , Tomoko knew she’d have to keep an eye on him for the rest of the night, in case something were to happen. “Well then, shall we go?”

“Um, if it’s no trouble…” Kiyotaka reached his other hand towards Tomoko, putting it on her shoulder, “could you give me a hand? I feel a little dizzy.”

“Oh, uh, sure thing.”

Tomoko’s concern for her friend only grew each time he tripped over a pothole, raised curb or something else, but they eventually made it to the café and slid into a booth near a window. Both only went for a bottle of water.

“How did it even happen?”

“I was just putting a book onto a shelf last night and I must have--”

“Last night? This has been going on for almost 24 hours?”

“Yes…and I must have accidentally knocked another one off. It hit me right on top of the head, but better me than Fujisaki-kun.”

“Fujisaki-kun? He almost got hit in the head too?!”

“If I hadn’t been there. Is that…a problem? You seem overly-concerned over a small head injury.”

“It’s nothing!” Realising she was finding it harder to cool off this time, Tomoko cleared her throat and took a sip of water. “It’s nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. You’re the one with the horrible headache, _I_ should be the one worrying about _you_!”

“It is getting better, though.” Just in case, however, he drank more of his own water. “Anyway, wasn’t there something you wanted to talk about?”

“Right, yeah. I never really got to mention it on the phone. Uh, you’ve been spending a lot of time tutoring this Shi girl – way more than all of last year put together – and I’m just worried. You want to help her with her studies? Sure thing, no problems with that – that would be ridiculous if I did have problems with it. But since the beginning of the year, it’s like it’s the only thing you’ve been doing.”

Kiyotaka sighed. “Yes, I can agree with that. College makes her schedule a lot more irregular.”

“Not to mention on the phone you were up until almost midnight trying to learn the bare basics of robotics!” A small pause. “Did you?”

“Not extensively.”

“The point I’m trying to make…you need a break from this. Especially if your headache is as bad as I’ve seen.”

“Ishimaru-kun? Is that you?”

Both of them turned to the blonde young woman stood near the door. She looked roughly the same age as the two.

“Oh, Shi-kun! What a coincidence!”

“ _Shi?!_ ”

“Hm. Could you be the Fukuhara-san I’ve heard so much about? It’s nice to see you in person!” She extended a hand.

“Oh, how rude of me!” Kiyotaka stood up, standing next to the young woman. “Fukuhara-kun, this is Shi-kun, the girl I’ve been tutoring. Shi-kun, Fukuhara-kun.”

_No other introduction, I see. Also, so much for just us two._

“H-hey…Shi-san…” Tomoko managed to force out, slowly shaking her hand.

“What are you doing here anyway?”

“Well, I was meeting with some of my college friends for a study session, but we had to wrap it up early. I was just on my way home, actually.”

“Well if you want to, you could have a drink with us? To make up for tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“I have had quite a worrying headache, which I hope to get checked tomorrow.”

“Ah, I see. Well, sure thing! If that’s okay with both of you?”

Both of them smiling, they looked to Tomoko, completely dumbfounded at the turn of events. This Shi girl was now part of the evening meant to serve as a break _from_ Shi.

But…she didn’t want her first impression of herself to be that of a rude bitch, so…

“…y-yeah…”

…

The headache appeared to be long forgotten after half an hour. Shi had gone for a juice instead of a water like the other two. Both of them were happily talking about…something. Tomoko couldn’t be bothered to tune into it, instead trying to strike up a text conversation under the table with…well, whichever member of the 79th Class was using it. Having next to nothing to add to the other two’s talking, she wanted out as soon as possible.

Tomoko: _Anyone there?_

“Fukuhara-san.”

She almost dropped her phone when Shi finally addressed her.

“I’m so sorry, I feel like we’ve just left you out completely.”

“It’s fine. So, Ishimaru-kun says you’re studying robotics at college.”

“Yeah. I’m something of a techie, so I thought hey, why not try make a career out of it? I did good in math and science in high school but needed to pass a couple of other exams in order to get onto the college course. So I paid Ishimaru-kun to help with tutoring so I could pass.”

“Oh, I see.” _Even though that isn’t really what I asked about._ “Is robotics harder than you thought?”

“Not at all. It’s the kind of thing that comes naturally to me. I guess like cooking does to you.”

“How do you know about that?”

“Duh, Ishimaru-kun told me how good you are.”

“Oh, right, of course. I learnt from my mom. She was part of a previous class at Hope’s Peak Academy as the SHSL Chef, and she taught me quite a lot of what she knows. I think when I was little, she wanted me to work as part of one of her restaurants in the future. Look where that went.”

Tomoko was surprised when Shi released a laugh in response, which she found oddly unnerving, but it was ignored when her phone buzzed in her lap.

79th Class: _This is Kaede. What do you need?_

Tomoko: _Do you know if anyone’s planning to go out tonight?_

79th Class: _Chabashira-san, Yumeno-san and Amami-kun are about to get food._

Tomoko: _Is it really safe what with his head injury?_

79th Class: _It is now. The medicine you’ve bought for us has done wonders!_

Tomoko: _Well, good to know! Could you tell them to wait around the town centre when they’re done? I think I may need a lift home._

79th Class: _Sure thing. Is something wrong?_

“Fukuhara-kun!”

“Hm?”

“We’ve been trying to get your attention.”

“Oh. Have you? Somebody just wanted to ask me something.”

“Who’s _79 th Class_?”

“What?” Tomoko instantly looked at her phone…which turned out to be on top of the table rather than under it. She cursed under her breath. “Oh that’s…uh…a nickname for…my cousin! She’s a pianist and it’s named after…a…an old music piece. At least, that’s what _she_ told me.” She quickly put her phone away and rested her head in one of her hands.

“Really? Sounds like you were tricked.”

“Fukuhara-kun, you’ve been acting quite…”

The rest of his sentence was lost on her. All at once, everything around her started to blur together, Kiyotaka’s voice sounding like it was underwater. Tomoko squinted at them both, in the hopes it would fix things, but to no avail. Shi appeared to notice this, and it looked like worry spread over her face.

“Fu…ara-san?”

Everything returned to normal when she felt her forehead hit the edge of the table, her hand having slipped away somehow.

While waiting for the pain to subside, she could tell that Shi was hovering over her from her side of the table and Kiyotaka was crouching next to her.

“What happened just now? Do you need anything?”

“I’m fine. I just need some air.”

Rubbing her head, Tomoko stood up out of her seat and walked outside, past the other two. Neither one of them followed her.

…

She had no clue where the sudden burst of pain had come from, but the only real thing she could put it down to, was her amnesia. Nobody had told her whether or not headaches, dizziness and possible nausea were normal in this situation, but hey, she had to roll with the punches until she got answers.

Tomoko made a move to rifle through her bag, in order to pull out her journal, only to find herself grasping air instead. Confused at first as a result, she turned around to look through the window behind her. On the other side was the table she was previously sat at, Kiyotaka now beside the window, Shi next to him…and Tomoko’s bag still on her chair.

“Crap…now if the headache doesn’t clear up, I’m probably going to forget again.”

She pressed a hand to her head while leaning back against the window, waiting for the discomfort to clear enough. But by the time it did…

“Tomoko Fukuhara, correct?”

A dull male voice spoke to her from the darkness, in Japanese. Tomoko spun around multiple times in order to find the source, to no avail.

“Who wants to know?”

To her right, a young man probably her age came out under a nearby streetlight. He was in a plain black suit with a grey tie, and had dark green hair.

“No one suspicious. There’s something I need to inform you about.” He reached into his pocket and removed what looked like an ID badge. On it was his picture, some writing she couldn’t read in the dark, and a large logo. “Future Foundation Branch 13, Shinzo Yoshikage. I work for your parents.”

Before Tomoko could question him on that subject, he revealed the letter she’d written to them as proof.

“Oh.”

Shinzo pocketed his ID and the letter once again. “We shouldn’t talk here. Let’s go elsewhere. That is, if you choose to believe me.”

Tomoko paused a moment, glancing up to the window, where she saw her table. Her bag was still on the seat, and from the looks of things, neither Kiyotaka nor Shi appeared to be too worried about her anymore.

Turning back to the young man, she reluctantly nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: if things were bad for Tomoko before...


	7. Everything Numbs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“The extreme always seems to make an impression.”_  
>  _\- J.D, Heathers_
> 
> Shinzo passes an alert onto Tomoko, and things take yet another turn for the worse for her and Kiyotaka.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4,500 words - probably a new record for me  
> Title comes from the song Freeze Your Brain, from Heathers the Musical

The new café wasn’t any busier than the first one, but there still proved to be a warming atmosphere inside. Unfortunately, the same feeling wasn’t shared in one booth. The one occupied by Tomoko and Shinzo. Neither one of them had ordered anything, and Shinzo had made sure to pick a spot that nobody would notice them in. In the wake of all of Kyoko’s exposition dumping disguised as an investigation, Tomoko knew to be on her guard of this person, at least until she was sure of his intentions.

“So, you say you work for my parents.”

“I do. Emiko Fukuhara is my boss.”

“Can I see your badge again?”

Shinzo reached into his blazer pocket again to reveal the same ID he’d flashed earlier. Tomoko held it in her hands, moving it around a couple times, ensuring it was valid.

“I understand your suspicions towards me, especially given your current mental situation.”

“Wha-- how do you know about that?!”

“Nobuharu wouldn’t stop reading your letter for a few weeks. I overheard him and Emiko talking about it, but nobody outside of Branch 13 knows about it. Well, except for Naegi and co.”

“Right. But enough about that.” Tomoko leaned back and folded her arms. “Why exactly was it you were looking for me?”

“Two things.” Shinzo reached into his blazer and retrieved a dark blue folder, lightly packed with sheets but not overflowing. On the front was a clear CLASSIFIED stamp. “First, there’s something I need to be passed onto Kirigiri.

“There’s classified information in there, relating to a series of attacks related to the Tragedy. It may tie in with Kirigiri’s current investigations, and from what I’ve heard, you can be trusted to keep them safe.”

Tomoko’s hand hovered over it, almost tempted to flip the top open and read the paper, but knew better than to do so.

“Alright. But why couldn’t you just walk into the town and give it to her personally?”

“And draw the attention of those reality rejects you call classmates? Some of them are more insightful than they let on…and can’t really keep their mouth shut.”

“Fair enough.” Tomoko set the file on her lap before another customer could catch a glimpse of it. “And the second thing?”

“While you can’t know what exactly is in the folder, it’s about a certain group. A group calling themselves the Neo Remnants of Despair. Reports from many Future Foundation members have mentioned this group being responsible for a series of the aforementioned attacks. The group itself is small, but a wave of unofficial followers still exists. Nobody knows who exactly makes up this group, but one name has been all but confirmed. Shiori Kurokami.

“He or she is highly dangerous, and unpredictable with their strategies. However, they’ve been reported to never fight anyone personally. Despite being the alleged mastermind behind the group, their lackeys are possibly worse than them. One higher up member of the group holds a vendetta against the Future Foundation, and as a result has only targeted them. Survivors say that he’s after the leaders, who as we both know, are here. So I need you to pass a warning onto Kirigiri and her group: watch out for Shiori Kurokami. You never know when she and the other Neo Remnants could attack the Neo Hope’s Peak.”

Tomoko had never thought about the danger that the academy could be in if the wrong person were to get in. And hearing this Shinzo guy telling her this made the revelation sink in.

“I don’t know whether or not I should even be telling you this, but I suppose it’s too late now. That was all I needed you for.”

Shinzo got up from his seat and made a move towards the door.

“Remember, make sure that Kirigiri is the first person to see this. And please, not a word to anyone else. I’m sure that goes without saying.”

“But hold on a moment!” Tomoko finally said something else to him concerning his research, something which she was actually surprised she caught onto. “Why would _you_ need to pass details onto Kirigiri-san? You’re Branch 13, she’s Branch _14_.”

Shinzo paused with a hand over the door handle and turned back to her, his face not looking any different. “Does it really matter? We’re all on the same side, after all.”

With that, Shinzo pushed the front door open and walked back out into the dark, leaving Tomoko possibly more confused than she was before entering.

“Shiori Kurokami, huh.” Tomoko placed a hand over the folder. “Does Kirigiri-san already know something about her?”

But that wasn’t the important part anymore. She remembered a passing comment from Kyoko about how the branches never really interact with one another except in extreme circumstances. She didn’t know exactly how bad the situation over there was, but with what she knew now, she knew better than to let that detail go over her head.

“Who was that?”

Tomoko looked away from the door at the sound of the new voice. A familiar face stood next to the table, a tray on one arm with one of his legendary sandwiches on top.

“DJ? You work here?”

“Yeah, have done for a year or so. But was that some old friend of yours?”

“No, more like a…family acquaintance, let’s say.”

“Well he sure was in a hurry, leaving without even gettin’ a drink. What about you?”

Tomoko’s stomach growled at that moment. “Oh, yeah, I’ll just get a…oh, right. I left it at the other place…damn, I forgot about Ishimaru and Shi!”

“Who’s Shi?”

“It doesn’t matter, I’ll see you back at school!” She stood up quickly, but was stopped by DJ’s free hand on her shoulder.

“Have this…the person who ordered this left in a hurry. On me.”

Almost on instinct, she snatched it up and unceremoniously shoved the end of it into her mouth. “Thanks DJ, you’re the best! See you Monday!”

But the moment one foot was out the door, she quickly spun back around and ran for the seat again, retrieving something blue DJ hadn’t spotted before. “Forgot something. Bye again!”

…

“Huh. Wonder what’s taking so long.”

It took five minutes after Tomoko left for Shi and Kiyotaka to notice it was taking a little too much time for her to recover.

“She doesn’t appear to be outside the window anymore.”

“I wonder what even happened with her. Does that kind of thing happen a lot?”

“No, not at all. But she was acting quite abnormally this week. Well, more so this evening. When I told her about my head injury, she became maybe a little too concerned, like something drastic was going on. Also she appears to be having a lot of late nights.”

“It _is_ your last year at the academy, right? Maybe it’s to do with studying.”

“The examinations don’t rely on conventional studying for most people.”

Shi noticed the door opening, and Tomoko running back in with a small piece of a sandwich between two of her fingers, as well as a blue folder under one of her arms. “Hey guys! Sorry about that.”

“Fukuhara-kun! Is everything alright now?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. I’m fine.”

“If you insist…”

 _But now I think about it_ , Tomoko realised, _I don’t remember anything new after that headache._

“More importantly, is my bag still here?”

“Of course,” Shi pointed to the chair beside her. “Been looking after it for…” She paused, however, when the door opened once more, following the person coming in as they walked to the line.

They had a black and white hoodie on, with the hood covering their head and one sleeve longer than the other, and what looked like dark yoga pants and red slippers. Almost as though they’d gotten out of bed just to walk and get a sandwich. So Shi’s reaction was a little concerning to the other two.

“Shi-kun? What’s going on?”

“Just be ready to run for the door on my cue.”

Shi quietly stood up from her chair and moved towards the hooded girl, carefully taking the place in the line behind her. Tomoko saw her reach into her pocket for something in the meantime.

“And she must have thought _I_ was acting weird.” Tomoko leaned over the table for her bag, ending up accidentally tipping its contents onto the floor. “Crap.”

“Language, Fukuhara-kun!”

In the meantime, Shi had got closer to the person, resting a hand on their shoulder.

“Hey. You.”

The person turned to face them, their expression not giving anything about them away. “Yes?” Their face revealed them to be a female.

“I need to ask you something important.”

“And…you are?”

“I think the better question is, who are _you_? Because if you’re who I think you are, you’d be smart to do as I say.”

“And you should probably be doing a better job.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re supposed to be protecting them, aren’t you? Your boyfriend and third wheel over there. Or is it girlfriend?”

“What does it matter to you?”

Turning back around and moving closer to the counter, the woman smirked.

Back at the table, Tomoko was still crouched underneath re-packing her bag.

“Do you need a hand, Fukuhara-kun?”

“Nope, just looking for one last thing…phone, phone…ah! There we go.”

On the screen were numerous missed messages, all from the 79th Class’ phones.

79th Class: _Hello? Tomoko-chan? Is everything still okay?_

79th Class: _Tomoko-chan? Seriously, please answer me!_

79th Class2: _We’ve parked up somewhere near town, do you still need a lift out_

“Oh damn it. Forgot about Kaede.”

Tomoko started shuffling backwards from under the table, sliding her phone into her bag and trying to do the same with the folder in some way, when she spotted something under the table. Among the gum and grotesque amounts of half-eaten food stuck to the underside, there was a tiny metal chip with a faintly flashing red light fused into it. She may not be as knowledgeable as Shi and possibly Kiyotaka when it came to robotics, but this was _not_ good in the slightest. Dangerous, even.

“Ishimaru-kun, get away. Now.”

“What?”

“Just head for the door!”

“Fukuhara-kun, you’re acting strange again. Just tell me what’s happening!”

Hearing Kiyotaka’s lack of an indoor voice, Shi turned away momentarily from the mysterious woman to the pair, also somehow catching sight of the weird thing, now that Tomoko was out of the way.

“What is that?”

“And there are plenty more where that came from.”

The woman caught her attention once more, her face now in full view. Now with a better view, Shi noticed her red eyes and demonic grin, still maintaining the bored and tired look in her eyes.

“Consider this…the precursor.”

Her hand came out of her hoodie pocket, a red button clenched in it.

“Shit!”

The moment the woman’s thumb twitched over the button, Shi spun around and ran towards Tomoko and Kiyotaka, tackling Tomoko to the floor.

“Everybody get down! NOW!”

“Shi-san, what the--”

Tomoko’s question was cut off by a multitude of explosions from all directions, throwing the two of them further across the floor. Thankfully they weren’t harsh enough to cause any burning sensations, but no doubt there’d be casualties.

“Wait…that thing was a fricking _explosive_?!”

“Ishimaru-kun!” Shi yelled through the customers’ screaming to the one she was unable to protect. “You okay?!”

“I’m fine!”

Kiyotaka swatted some of the smoke away and helped the two girls to their feet, Shi instantly running towards the staff door.

“She’s not getting away this time. Both of you get out of here now! I have something important to deal with!”

Now with a gun in her hand, Shi took off at a sprint out through the door, Tomoko and Kiyotaka waiting a few moments before following her.

“Why in the world does Shi-kun own a gun?!”

“It doesn’t matter right now, just keep moving! That’s the best way out!”

As they made their way to the far end of the hall, Tomoko noticed Shi chasing the woman through a different hall that branched off. _At least we don’t have to worry about being attacked from behind._ Eventually, Tomoko managed to force the door open at the end of the hall, her and Kiyotaka stumbling out into the alleyway. Both of them took in some deep breaths, re-adjusting to the smoke-free environment. While Kiyotaka was distracted, Tomoko quickly reached for the folders from Shinzo, making sure they weren’t damaged at all. They weren’t, just stinking of smoke as much as the pair did.

“Phew…thank God.”

“That was close. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah. Shaken, but not hurt at all. You?”

Kiyotaka rolled up one of his sleeves, noticing a small graze from contact with the floor. “Only this. But let’s face it, it could have been a lot worse.”

Red and blue flashing lights partially illuminated their small space in the alleyway, indicating the arrival of police and ambulance services.

“Well then, we should--”

Tomoko firmly gripped onto his sleeve before he could walk away.

“No, let’s go the other way.”

“Why? Shouldn’t we give a police testimony?”

Tomoko slowly walked towards the end of the alley, glancing around a few times, in case of any sign of Shi or the other woman. Neither were in sight, only people crowded round the front helping evacuate victims.

“I know we should, but…”

“But what? If we come forward with information, they might be able to help Shi-kun! Which reminds me, why _did_ she…Fukuhara-kun, are you even listening to me?”

From what she could see, all the people outside the alleyway were to the left of them, too focused on the attack, so it’s likely nobody would notice if they left by running the other way. But despite the chance, she didn’t want to risk it.

“Fukuhara-kun!” He made a move towards her. “This is serious! We need to--”

“There’s no reason to worry about that.”

“Wh--” Kiyotaka was fast to turn to the source of the new voice, but was prevented from doing so by a large hand covering his mouth. He tried to pull the hand off or get closer to Tomoko, but to no avail.

“Look, Ishimaru-kun, I get it goes against everything you stand for, but right now our top…priority…is…”

It took her longer to notice the perpetrator behind the bombing than it did the man with Kiyotaka in his clutches. He had long dishevelled hair, worn-out clothing and looked roughly in his thirties or forties. What worried her, however, was how the man could effortlessly restrain Kiyotaka with one hand, despite the other one being in a large cast.

“Who are you two?” Tomoko forced herself to ask them. “And why did you do this?” Stupid question, but she couldn’t take it back now.

Neither one of them replied.

“Well? Say something!”

“You don’t know who we are, but you will soon. And my motives are of no concern to you. Yet.”

The man looked over to the broken window leading to the café when the woman finished. More people were running about inside in order to help the injured. Smoke continued to billow out from all corners.

“Gotta hand it to you Kurokami...”

_Kurokami? Wait…!_

“…you sure do know how to come up with attention-seeking plans.”

“Oh, shut up and get Ishimaru out of here, before Blondie loops back around again.”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

Wielding a rusty pipe that had previously been on the floor beside them, Tomoko stood her ground against the two assailants.

“Oh?”

“I don’t know what caused you to pull that bomb stunt, or what you want with Ishimaru-kun, but if you really are who I think you are, don’t think you’re getting away with-- GHH!”

Tomoko heard the gunshot ring out before she could comprehend the woman was even holding one. The burning sensation in her right side came fractions of a second later, and the muffled screaming after that. Tomoko glanced down to the source of the pain, seeing only a small hole in the right side of her shirt. And the red stain forming around it.

…oh.

“Be thankful I don’t kill you here and now. Haiji, let’s go.”

_Haiji? Ugh, not now, Tomoko!_

“Get back here, you little-- AH!”

More gunshots were fired in her direction, all of them fortunately missing her. She took a brief pause to pick up one of the bullets – it only looked like a tiny pellet, but the damage was done and felt.

She sucked up the pain and gave chase to Kurokami and Haiji, pipe still in hand, all the while ignoring the blood that leaked from her side and the pain shooting down her right with each step she took. She had to reach Kiyotaka, she just _had_ to! Failure was no option in this scenario!

_Wait, what was with that sudden bout of desperation?_

Once again ignoring it, she made sure that Kurokami, Haiji and Kiyotaka didn’t leave her field of vision, something which failed when the full effect of being shot caught up with her. One misstep into a small pothole resulted in the pain being amped up, leading to Tomoko losing her balance and hitting the floor. Mere feet away from the lit street.

“Come on…not now…Ishimaru-kun!” She yelled out his name in one last ditch attempt to figure out her proximity to the three, receiving no response, obviously. Using her arms, not quite ready to try standing up again, she pulled herself out onto the street, quieter than the one behind her, given nobody was around. The only thing she could see was a black van, with a group of people inside. The two people in front, however, were all too familiar.

“Haiji and Kurokami…” Oddly enough, the man with one arm was the one in the drivers’ seat, but that was the least of her concerns right now.

Tomoko took in a breath and forced herself back onto her feet, the increased bleeding not going unnoticed. She risked it again though, in order to pick up the pipe. She did a quick double take to ensure nobody else was coming, and used all her strength to toss the pipe through the pair’s windscreen.

And despite everything, she felt intense satisfaction seeing their reaction to the giant hole she’d created.

This didn’t last, however, as Haiji turned the ignition on and aimed the car straight at her.

“Oh, shit!”

Inches from likely death, Tomoko threw herself back down the alley, accidentally landing on her gunshot wound and causing more pain to shoot down her right side. And as much as she wanted to stand up and keep chasing after those two, she knew she couldn’t.

As the car came close to rounding the corner, she heard more gunshots ring out and was ready to dive again, but stopped when she saw the source of those bullets, the blonde almost effortlessly making chase to the van.

“Shi-san!”

However, over the gunshots and incredibly loud growling of the engine, she couldn’t hear her yelling, nor did she even notice her from her position in the dark alley. But it didn’t stop Tomoko from trying.

“They got Ishimaru-kun! And shot me! Use that surprising skill of yours and stop them! You can’t hear a word I’m saying, can you?”

The answer came in the form of her continuing to pursue the van, the gunshots only fading out once she too had rounded the corner.

“Great. It’s great. No problem.”

With no help in sight, Tomoko dragged herself out of the alleyway and sat up against a nearby streetlight. While one hand felt around her bag for her phone, the other one grasped at her torso in an attempt to stop the bleeding, as she took a series of deep breaths.

“Well, guess those guys are gonna have to come to me.”

She eventually found her phone and pulled it out, searching for the right number.

…

“Nyeehhh…shouldn’t Fukuhara be in this area?”

Thankfully, Rantaro, Tenko and Himiko had chosen to keep waiting in town for Tomoko to show up, so they were able to quickly find where she was waiting for them. While Rantaro drove, Tenko read the directions from the back (she’d refused to sit in the front with a “degenerate”, instead staying with Himiko).

“I think so. The street is empty like she said.”

“The message said something about broken glass, an alleyway…”

“There she is! She doesn’t look very well at all, though.” Tenko leaned between the seats and pointed Rantaro in the right direction, where Tomoko was sat against a streetlight. She noticed their 4x4 parking up beside her, and took a surprisingly long time to stand up.

She reached for the front passenger seat door. “Hey guys…sorry about making you wait.”

“Oh, thank goodness! Tenko was worried that-- Fukuhara-san?!”

With all the chaos going on in the aftermath of the explosion, Tomoko was surprised that no emergency services had heard the gunshots and found her. Even though Tenko was highly concerned for her condition, Tomoko honesty couldn’t be bothered anymore.

Okay, yeah, she’d been shot. And that was always a cause for concern. But having inspected the entry and exit wounds with her limited medical knowledge, it only appeared to be a slight graze against her side, not damaging anything important. The other factor of course being Kiyotaka. She still didn’t know where the whole “failure isn’t an option” thought process came from, nor did she think she’d actually be able to stop them, but she’d still essentially let two terrorists abduct Kiyotaka for whatever reason, absolutely helpless to stop them. And who even knew if Shi managed to track him down?

But the one good thing to come out of the evening was the amount of concern the 79th Class were showing over her wellbeing. On the journey back to the class’ temporary home, Tenko was showering her with question after question about her wellbeing, while Rantaro probably broke many speed limits to make sure the injury didn’t lead to anything more serious further down the line. Kirumi had prepared her and her classmates a fresh cup of tea upon their arrival, while Maki & Kaito dealt with her injury – thankfully, the blood loss was minimal, so all they needed to do was patch it up. Sat in her bed, Tsumugi appeared to be attempting to mend the hole in her shirt, leaving her with only her crop top vest and hoodie covering her top half.

“Thank you, guys. I really appreciate you doing this for me.”

“It’s no problem, after what you’ve done to help us!”

“Look, I know it hurts, but try and stop moving for a second.”

“Ow! Right, sorry.”

“Seriously, though, what happened with you?”

“Well you’re probably going to hear it in the news eventually so…ow! Sorry, Harukawa-san. So to put it simply, this café I was at was bombed by some woman.”

“And the gunshot wound?”

“It came from a sword, Momota-kun. What other kind of explanation is there for a gunshot wound?!”

“Who did you say was behind this?”

“Just some woman.” She thought it better to not give away any names. “There was a man there too, but I don’t know whether he did anything relating to the bombing.”

“Were any names mentioned?”

 _Keep it with Kirigiri-san, Tomoko. He’s a detective, sure, but NOBODY ELSE must know._ “No, sorry.”

“Well, don’t worry about it,” Kaede encouraged Shuichi. “I’m sure if you were to ask Kirigiri-san, she’d be willing to let you help investigate. And speaking of which, on a less depressing note, we have news. We’ve all recovered enough to start attending the Neo Hope’s Peak – as of Monday, we’re joining you guys in classes!”

“Really? But…I didn’t think everyone was up yet.”

“They aren’t, there’s still two to go,” Kaito glanced to the last bed currently occupied (Kokichi’s) and the box next to Miu, “but we think we might be able to get answers from staff at the academy.”

“Good idea.”

“Okay, all done now.” Maki started packing everything back into the group’s small medical kit. “So on that note, we have another request to ask of you.”

“To keep looking after Ouma-kun while you’re out?”

Shuichi looked down at his lap. “In the events of the killing game, none of us really had the best memories of Ouma-kun. Yes, his in-game personality was similar to his real one, but I’m unsure exactly how we _would_ react to him if he were to wake up.”

“I see…wait, _in-game_?”

“It would appear that a handful of our personalities and memories were altered for the sake of creating more motives to be used against us. Ouma-kun was one of those affected, as were Hoshi-kun and myself,” Korekiyo explained.

“We’d rather not talk about it at the moment.”

“No, I understand. But the Ouma-kun I remember from the festival…will that be who comes out on the other side?”

“There’s no easy way to tell. But if it worked for us, there’s hope for--”

“Okay, don’t go all Komaeda-kun on me.” Tomoko’s comment garnered some laughter from those familiar with who Nagito was. “On a serious note though, I’d be more than happy to.”

“Great! We’ll return things to normal, though, when they’re back with us.”

“For now though,” Kirumi said, “if I may make a suggestion, you should return home soon. Your brothers will no doubt be worried about you.”

“Well technically, one of them isn’t my brother. And they’re likely cold out by now. But yeah, I agree.” She took her shirt back from Tsumugi and slipped it back on over her head. “Thank you all again for helping me.”

“Like we said, it’s the least we could do as repayment!”

“Well then,” feeling more pain as she tried to stand up from the bed, she latched onto Tenko to help herself stand up. “I’ll see you all Monday morning. And let me know if you need me to get anything else.”

“Wait.” Shuichi stopped her as her hand hovered over the doorknob. “You didn’t catch any of the names, but did you witness anything else of note happen back there?”

_NOBODY. ELSE._

“No. Sorry, Saihara-kun.”

“It’s fine, it was worth a try. Well, good night then.”

She’d been sure to leave their building on a lighter mood, as not to worry the 79th Class. But the moment she crossed through the door, the full weight of the evening’s events crashed down on her.

No matter how much she’d kept it on the DL while being tended to, she’d been shot! And no matter how small her wound was, there was never a time when a gunshot wound _wasn’t_ serious – there could have been damage done to a vein or something. She was inside the building when that Kurokami girl set off the explosives and refused to even give a testimony to the police.

And then Kiyotaka…she’d tried to save him from the two attackers, and failed. Just watching them get away with that…she’d failed him not only on her job, but as a friend, too.

Wait…her…job…?

 _Tojo-san was right. I really_ should _get some rest after all this._

All she could do now was hope that things would be somewhat better the next morning. Or better yet, that all this shit was some messed up nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Tomoko tries to forget about the results of last night


	8. Liberosis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Liberosis - n. the desire to care less about things—to loosen your grip on your life, to stop glancing behind you every few steps, afraid that someone will snatch it from you before you reach the end zone_

The following morning, Tomoko felt like shit.

Not only had the events of the previous night kept her up far later than usual, but she’d had to wait until Shinjiro & Ian were asleep before returning home, as to avoid drawing attention to her injury. On that note, the medication had worn off in the night, resulting in a lot of stinging.

The pain, however, wasn’t what woke her up, but rather the incessant vibrating of her phone. Forcing herself onto her good side, she reached for her phone to see what everyone was complaining about.

“Please don’t be about the bombing… _please_ don’t be about the bombing…”

It was about the bombing.

Opening Chihiro’s private app, she noticed that somebody had started almost like a forum thread on the subject. She couldn’t be bothered to look at who it was, but was more interested in what everybody was saying about it: _were there any deaths? Was anyone we know involved? Topher, don’t you have more important things to be posting about?_

Oh. Never mind the last one.

Tomoko was about to put her phone back down when a message popped up from Sayaka.

_Are you ready for later today?_

“…oh crap, that’s tonight, isn’t it?”

Instead of replying, she rolled out of bed and discarded her pyjamas onto the covers, checking the coast was clear before heading to the shower. Tomoko locked the door behind her, turned on the water giving it a chance to warm up, and carefully removed the bandages covering her torso.

Once it reached the optimum temperature, Tomoko stepped in and proceeded to delicately tend to the wound, careful as not to break off the newly formed layer of skin over the top of it. The pain wasn’t as harsh as she’d expected it to be, so she was able to continue without having to slow down or pause too many times.

With each new part of her body she covered, she had to keep trying to think of something to take her mind off yesterday, which was proving far harder than she thought. Put it down to lack of sleep, or the sheer inability to comprehend what had happened _had_ happened…

_“My motives are of no concern to you. Yet.”_

_“Consider this…the precursor.”_

_“Watch out for Shiori Kurokami.”_

_“Does it matter? We’re all on the same side, after all.”_

All the thoughts, and the traces of a theory she was starting to develop, suddenly vanished when out of nowhere, almost a burning sensation shot down her back. A pain that felt similar to the one she’d had in her second year – the one that wouldn’t go away without some of Seiko’s miracle drugs. Tomoko was quick to turn the water off and had both hands feeling for something that may have caused it, but to no avail. Shrugging it off and choosing to just relate it to the gunshot this time (that or the water getting too hot for a brief moment), she reached for her towel and went rooting for the first aid kit.

…

Deep down, a part of Tomoko worried that being in a class with Nagito meant that some of his luck had rubbed off on her in some way. Something always appeared to happen whenever she got on a bus – the school was different on the bus back from interning on the Race, she could actually call herself Amy’s friend after catching a bus to meet her, and then there was yesterday. So she was almost scared to take the bus to meet everyone in town that day.

As it would appear, though, the bad thing happened as soon as she stepped off the bus. Turns out the meeting point was in view of the café. What a reminder.

“About time you got here!”

Tomoko looked over to see the group, almost fully assembled. Leon & Ian, Sayaka, Ibuki, Shinjiro, and the new girl who she hadn’t been able to spend any time with yet.

“We waited in the house, but you were taking too long to get home.”

“I had to pick something up from Kimura-san.” Tomoko casually let her hand drop to the (now much smaller) scar. She didn’t know why it hadn’t fully healed, but it might just be because she didn’t emphasise the seriousness of the injury when it was being tended to. “No Oowada-kun or Fujisaki-kun?”

“They pulled out at the last minute. Didn’t give any reason why.”

“And now that we’re both part of the group,” the new girl said to Tomoko. “we have serious catching-up to do!”

“Got that right, since we didn’t have that much time before.”

“You two know one another?”

“Her mom was my English tutor back in Japan,” Tomoko explained, “so we spent quite a bit of time together.”

“Our parents were also friends in high school. Kind of like Yukizome-san and the two people she always talks about.”

“And you’re…how old again?” Leon asked.

“Almost 18.”

“Well, as if the age range around here wasn’t big enough.”

“So then,” Sayaka said, “are there any plans for today?”

“The plan was originally to find a place to eat around here, but…” Miku pointed towards the remains of the attacked café, still surrounded by police tape, emergency service vehicles and the odd member of the press.

“Anyone know any other good places we can go?”

…

The group had travelled a lot less far than they’d expected to, ending up in a place not that far away from the academy, that had been recommended by a couple of others – some place called BeaverTails that only Ian had ever heard of.

While most of the group were waiting at the table, Tomoko and Miku were waiting in line to order all their food.

“So Miku-san,” Tomoko said, hoping to make conversation with her former friend, “what brings you here?”

“Duh, I got myself into Hope’s Peak Academy! SHSL Journalist.”

“Journalist? I don’t remember you ever doing anything like that.”

“Guess I’ve changed a lot since we last met, then?”

“Heh, you and me both.”

Miku collected the first items from the group’s order from the front, both choosing to remain distanced from the table for a few more moments.

“On that note, why come all the way to Canada when your mom’s a teacher in Japan?”

“I could well have gone there, but it may have brought up a nepotism debate, especially after Kirigiri-san.”

“Ah, fair enough.”

“Hey! Is it nearly ready?” Leon called from the table.

“Not much more left to go!” Tomoko turned back to Miku. “Looks like you’ve filled the gap with those three.”

“Gap?”

“There was technically a fourth person with Ian, Kuwata-kun and Maizono-san. Ian’s older sister, Tess. She’s a vlogger who apparently does a lot of covers and stuff of similar nature, who ended up becoming friends with Maizono-san. Never seen any of her videos myself.”

“Oh,” Miku paused. “Where is she now?”

“No idea. The first time it was to go back to LA for a sponsorship deal, or something, but this time she just left without saying anything.” Tomoko looked over at Sayaka. “Maizono-san’s other friends were nervous about how she’d react. After the first year, and over the summer, she’d always find an excuse to bring it up. So, not trying to sound mean or anything, but you’ve saved their sanity by becoming friends with her.”

“I see…well, glad I can be of help! I guess.” Both girls carrying a tray, they joined the rest of the group at their table, Leon immediately digging into a pair of battered hotdogs. Despite the inappropriate behaviour, Sayaka found herself giggling.

“Such a reaction from Sayaka-chan is…unexpected.”

“He did this last year at the movies.”

“Oh, yeah. The movie I took the time to recommend to you both, only for you to walk out of in the middle.”

“Sorry, bro. But hey, at least it was to support your latest production!”

“Ibuki would personally take SQUIPs over the 50s any day.”

“I’m guessing you’re talking about Maizono-san and Kuwata-kun becoming a couple, right?” Miku asked the group, still somewhat unsure of the events.

“Yeah, that was some rollercoaster.”

“Not just of Sayaka-chan and Leon-chan’s relationship, but also with Leon-chan’s character changes!”

“Hey, she doesn’t need to know about that!”

“I’m sure Maizono-san would have brought it up for her at some point.”

“But anyway, now we’re together,” the couple held hands, giving one another a quick kiss, “it’s my job to help Ian out whenever _he_ needs girl advice!”

Ian smirked. “After last year? _Please_.”

“Sorry, Kuwata-kun,” Tomoko said, “but I have to agree with him.”

“Seriously? How do you explain us, then?”

“ _I_ was the one who asked Maizono-san for a dance _for_ you! Only because you adopted the out-of-character persona.”

Ian nudged Miku lightly. “Give it another couple weeks, and you’ll see he isn’t as cool as he lets on.” She laughed lightly in response.

“Come on. There’s really nobody you need a hand hooking up with? Cause I’d be more than happy to.”

“Woah, Leon, you and Sayaka _just_ got together – you’re really considering cheating on her already?”

Ian’s comment garnered a laugh from everyone in the group, Miku’s particularly louder than the rest. However, she quickly glanced at her lap, red in the face and apologising.

As this went on, Shinjiro glanced over at Tomoko, who wasn’t looking best comfortable. “You doing okay? Bad food?”

“What? No, it’s great. Why?”

“You have your arm over your stomach like you’re in pain.”

“Oh, I’m fine, really. It’s just a small pain.”

“You sure? Because I have something that might help,” Miku rummaged through her handbag.

“Really, it’s nothing serious.”

As Miku shrugged and returned to the conversation, Tomoko couldn’t help feeling somewhat brighter than she had in the last week. Despite the light stinging of last night’s injury, the mood being shared on this day out was enough to push the worries and theories out of her head, watching her old friend having fun and getting along with her new ones.

“Alright, let’s get two more hotdogs over here!”

“Already?!”

“How did Maizono-san end up with him again?”

…even though all their personalities are total opposites.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: one familiar and one not-so-familiar face come into Tomoko's life


	9. A Different Kind of Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final two members of the 79th Class make their return.
> 
> Chapter title comes from Home by Daughtry

Now having to juggle a healing gun wound, an on-again off-again back pain, and the task of single-handedly looking after a semi-deceased kid on the outskirts of the city, Tomoko had half a mind to not bother coming into school that day. She had things she needed to piece together, alone, without being disturbed by the antics of her friends.

And then…Mondo.

She didn’t know if Kiyotaka had told Mondo about their day out that Saturday, and if he had, then she’d be a target for info on where he’d got to. And chances were, if it was let slip that she _could_ have done something to help but didn’t…

Nope. She already had one bad injury to deal with. She didn’t want to entertain the thought of dealing with a second.

Throwing caution to the wind and letting everything slip her mind, she stepped through the gates, only to be prevented from continuing by a firm hand on her shoulder.

“I didn’t do anything!” A pause as she looked at the person. “Oh. DJ. What do you need?”

“I heard the news about the bomb attack and wanted to check if you made it home safely.”

“Oh. Yeah, I did. I saw the explosion from a distance on the bus home.”

“Real tragedy that happened, huh?”

“Y-yeah…tragedy…”

DJ’s hand left her shoulder. “Are you sure everything’s okay?”

“Of course. Just…long night.”

“Well, okay then. If you’re sure. I’ll see you around.”

Tomoko nodded as he walked ahead of her. She knew they weren’t really friends, as such, but she had a clear idea of DJ’s personality from spending so long on the show. Something told her deep down that even though she couldn’t tell anyone about her knowledge, she could still trust people like him if she was worried.

And then that thought too was crushed when the rest of DJ’s group came running after him, almost knocking her to the floor and causing her bag to slide off her shoulder.

“Hey! Watch it!”

“Oh! Sorry, dude!” Geoff yelled back to her.

“My bad!” Brody followed suit.

“Maybe don’t stand in the way of the gate next time,” was Duncan’s response.

As Tomoko straightened up her uniform, two more appeared behind her. “Don’t worry about them.”

“Bridgette. And Leshawna.”

“This is weird. You coming in almost on the bell, _and_ alone. Some kind of problem?”

“No, why?”

“Fukuhara-san.”

The three girls looked over at Kyoko, who appeared to be waiting for her.

“Everything’s fine, guys. Really. I’ll see you around.” She picked up her bag again and ran over to Kyoko. It was a little too early for this to be anything about investigations, but she still had the folder to hand over.

And speaking of which…

“I assume you heard about the events of Saturday night,” Kyoko said, wasting no time jumping into the topic.

“Heard? I lived it.” She was still the only person she could tell about this. Kyoko had trusted her with a lot of vital information, so it was about time Tomoko did the same. “I was there when it happened. As in, inside the café.”

Tomoko was stunned by exactly how surprised Kyoko was by this revelation.

“Uh, but before that, I met with a member of Future Foundation. Or at least, he said he was. Or, uh…” Tomoko just shrugged and reached for the blue folder in her bag. “Basically, he asked me to give you this and not to look at anything inside. Here.”

Kyoko, still slightly stunned by Tomoko’s statement, just looked at it. “What was this person’s name?”

“Shinzo. Shinzo Yoshikage. Branch 13.”

Kyoko, still looking at the folder, slowly reached for it and put it under her arm. It was a moment before either woman said anything, until Kyoko continued.

“Come with me a second. I need you to tell me what happened.”

“Uh, okay.”

_Well, at least it’s only going to be Kirigiri-san finding out the truth._

…

Turns out the interrogation had lasted longer than she’d first hoped. In the end, Kyoko didn’t reveal anything about what was in the folder, except for one single detail: Shiori Kurokami attended Gunma Prefectural Shibutani High.

This was the only occasion where Tomoko had been doing more of the talking, and she hated it. As soon as she brought up a few issues in particular, Kyoko’s hand rapidly went across her notebook – Kiyotaka’s disappearance, Shi going after Shiori following the attack, and then the description of the man who was with Shiori.

As she suspected would happen, Kyoko didn’t tell her anything on top of that. Probably because every idea was still in the theory stages, so Tomoko left the classroom only slightly relieved that a part of the weight had been removed from her chest. But yes, on the bright side, she had told _somebody_ the truth. Even though she didn’t know exactly whether it was a good thing or not – as she’d thought to herself before, Kyoko was the only one she _could_ tell.

Shame her whole mood was about to nosedive again.

“Fukuhara? Aren’t yer in Yukizome’s class?”

“Hm? O-Oowada-kun?!” Tomoko struggled to hide the slight fear in her voice. “I just had to talk with Kirigiri-san about something important. Um…school stuff.”

“Okay…so, now that I’ve caught you, did you hear the news about my bro?”

“What? Uh, of course not! I mean, uh…wait, why do you seem so happy about the news?”

“He didn’t tell you?”

“…no?” _He_ did _say in the call he had some good news to tell me at some point._

“He’s only gone and got himself an interview at Harvard! Fuckin’ knew he’d get it!”

“Harvard? In October?”

“Yeah. He left after he was meetin’ with yer in town. He gave Fujisaki and me a call when he got there, and he told us what happened that night so…we know how close the three of you were to the attack.”

“Uh, well…”

“Just thought I’d check in with yer on the matter. Later.”

“B-but Oowada-kun…”

But before she could say anything, he’d already gone back down the corridor.

“Well that went…better than I’d hoped.”

* * *

 

In wake of the day’s events up to that point, Tomoko chose to get out while there was still nobody around to stop her. She’d headed straight for the temporary base of the 79th Class, dropped herself on Kaede’s bed, and ate her lunch there.

For a while, there appeared to be no changes to Kokichi’s condition, so for what felt like the rest of the afternoon, she lay down on top of the bed, staring at the ceiling and theorising, trying to make even a little sense of what the hell had been going on.

Okay, so Shiori attended the same high school as Junko Enoshima, and now she’s the leader of a group calling themselves the Neo Remnants of Despair. That can’t be a coincidence. So either she’s one of the survivors of the Tragedy who never had to endure the first ever killing game, or she _is_ the survivor of the first ever killing game. Her old theory of said survivor being killed later down the line may be false, and it could be that she was instead taken under Junko’s wing, taking over her position after her death. But all that could easily be disproven depending on what else was written inside Shinzo’s folder.

And what about Shi? How did she know about Shiori that night, and what right did she have to go after her? Is she another member of Future Foundation? And if so, did the Foundation in reality actually receive a tip-off about the attack? Is that why she was there with them on the day – to thwart it? But then there was the fact she was being tutored by Kiyotaka for a year.

Oh, yeah. Kiyotaka.

Yeah, she didn’t buy that whole Harvard story at all. Sure, it wasn’t out of his capabilities to be able to do so, but that most definitely would have been the first thing he told her when they met up. But Mondo said that he _called_ his friends – they heard his voice. He didn’t seem to have any worries about the legitimacy of it in the slightest, so it may not have been something his abductors forced him into. Unless it _was_ one of his abductors calling while impersonating him. She’s already seen the SHSL Cosplayer, so what if there are other former SHSLs turned evil who are also part of the group and are able to do that, who just weren’t there on the night?

“AHH! This is all too much!”

Tomoko pushed herself off the bed and hurled her bento box across the room, the lunchbox hitting a cardboard box beside Miu’s bed, making an oddly loud clanging noise on contact.

Ignoring it and not caring whether Miu’s latest invention was damaged or not, Tomoko leaned over and put her head in her hands. With so much in the last two days, the situation was on the verge of becoming too much for her to handle.

“Why did I have to find out all this…?”

However, before she could have any more negative thoughts on the subject, an incredibly bright light flooded the entire room. So bright that she was almost blinded. Despite the fact that she had to quickly shield her eyes in order to avoid retinal damage, she could tell that the light came from the back-right corner – next to Miu’s bed.

“What the hell?!”

Instead of getting up and walking over to the source to try and shut the light off, she just waited for it to shut off on its own, which happened sooner than expected. Tomoko took the time to clear the blur from her eyes as the light levels returned to normal.

“Geez…what was--”

“Huh? What is this place?”

Tomoko froze upon hearing another voice in the room. She had never heard it before, so knew it wasn’t the 79th Class returning. But with Shinzo’s words coming back to her, her surprise quickly changed to fear.

Once enough of her vision returned, she turned to the corner…and the fear only increased.

Miu’s box was now open, and in front of it stood a…boy? He looked the same age as the rest of the 79th Class, had white hair that spiked to the side, and an outfit that looked overly futuristic. Almost like a…robot…

“Um, may I ask, who are you?”

“…”

“…”

Tomoko screamed.

“W-wait! Please stop that!”

“H-how is this possible?! I was here by myself until just a second ago! Who…what…uh…who are you?!”

“If you could please stop shouting for a moment!”

Tomoko did, still looking at this…person?...wide eyed.

“I am Kiibo, the SHSL Robot. Well, the name my professor gave me was K1-B0, but I prefer it when people address me as Kiibo.”

“Um…Tomoko Fukuhara. SHSL Intern, kind of.”

“Oh, I see. So I am still in Japan.”

“Actually, you’re in Canada. I’m part of the _Neo_ Hope’s Peak over here. I don’t know exactly _how_ in your case, but the members of the 79th Class chose to come here after escaping a killing game.”

“So it worked, then?” Kiibo glanced at the floor, smiling. “Thank goodness.”

“Wait, does that mean you’re a part of the 79th Class? Because, I don’t remember hearing anything about you.”

“I am. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend your school festival. It appears that airport security was heavily increased following the events of the Tragedy.” Kiibo suddenly paused. “Whoops. I said too much!”

“No, it’s okay. I already know about all that.”

“Oh. I will not question how, exactly, but alright.” The robot then looked around the room. “Where is everybody else, by the way?”

“Fourteen of them are attending the Neo Hope’s Peak right now, and one more still isn’t up yet.”

“Up?”

“Long story short, they’ve been revived. And the process is taking a little longer for Ouma-kun.”

“Ouma-kun’s the only one left?”

“I’ve been asked to stay here and be there when he wakes up, while they’re in the school.”

“I see. But why you, specifically?”

“As I said before, it’s a long story. Besides, there’s a lot more confusing stuff going on at the moment, so explaining it’s going to be kind of hard.”

The conversation between the two was interrupted by another sudden noise – a loud breathy, gasping noise, coming from next to Kiibo. They both knew pretty much for definite about where it would have come from, but it was all but confirmed when they saw Kokichi sat upright in his bed, taking a number of deep breaths and hugging his body, as if in pain.

“Ouma-kun!” Kiibo quickly ran to his bedside while Tomoko started rummaging for a bottle of water and the right medication. Tomoko hovered on the right side of Kokichi, with Kiibo on the left. The latter supported Kokichi as he sat up in his bed, slowly drinking from the water bottle. “He appears to be in a stable condition for now.”

“What happened to him anyway? I was told he was…” just to be on the safe side, she dropped her voice and leaned over to Kiibo, “…crushed by a hydraulic press.” She moved away from him again. “So how is his body still intact?”

Kokichi’s actions were slow, indicating to Tomoko how much pain he was likely suffering with. He set the water to the side, proceeding to tug at the large shirt (which certainly wasn’t his own), murmured something to himself, and tried to reach for the chequerboard scarf on the bedside table. Kiibo noticed this and passed it over to him, the kid holding onto it like a lifeline. Only at this point did he look up at the two, showing a hint of recognition towards Tomoko.

“That eludes me, too. But more importantly, we obviously cannot leave him alone.”

“I’ll call Saihara-kun and let him know.”

However, as Tomoko made a move to press the call button, a hand closed around her wrist.

“Huh?”

“Why would you do that?”

Tomoko and Kiibo turned to face Kokichi, who refused to let go of her. His head was down, and that one move appeared to have taken most of the breath out of him.

“I mean…I’m not alive.”

“Come again?”

“You see, Fukuhara-chan, I’m actually a ghost.”

With everything that she’d been faced with as of late, Tomoko had an inkling of a reason to believe that this could be true, so she refused to question it, instead staring at the kid wide-eyed.

“Ignore him, Fukuhara-san. It is no doubt another one of his lies.”

“No it isn’t!” Kokichi replied, almost sounding like a toddler whining over something. “Not that you could understand how the human body works, Kii-boy.”

“I have half a mind to sue you for making such robophobic remarks!”

“Nishishi, good thing you don’t have a mind at all!”

“I want to help you out with your situation, but you are making it _increasingly_ difficult…”

“Ooh! Are you finally going to rocket-punch me?!”

Somewhat awed by the situation unfolding, what with Kokichi’s total 180 of his personality, Tomoko turned her back to the both of them, muttering under her breath. “How can all these people take their deaths so fricking lightly? What’s wrong with Hope’s Peak Academy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Kokichi makes life more difficult for Tomoko


	10. Two Lies and a Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kokichi is probably even more annoying than he was at the school festival, as is the task of keeping him and Kiibo hidden from the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for no update last week, final exams were getting on my ass. Hopefully for the next thirteen weeks I can get more of this thing written and put out on time.

She didn’t understand exactly how she’d got here.

Once the back-and-forth between the two boys had finished and Tomoko’s second attempt to contact Shuichi had been thwarted, the supreme leader’s attention had turned to her properly. For some unexplained reason, he started throwing any excuses his newly revived head could think of, in order to convince Tomoko to let him stay at her house. There were a handful of excuses (or the better term would probably be _lies_ ) that Tomoko had found particularly entertaining: Miu was aggressively assaulting him back at Hope’s Peak, he was allergic to the specific type of bedsheets Shuichi had bought for everyone…Tomoko drew the line and gave in to him before he could try pursuing his first lie about being a ghost, leaving a note behind and carrying Kokichi back to her own home, with Kiibo in tow.

Something Tomoko had taken note of while preparing to leave was that Kokichi’s chequerboard scarf was the only thing he had. While the other fifteen had all their clothes, as well as various other items close to them, there wasn’t anything else for him, meaning she had to root for things in her own house. When she came up short, she just temporarily tossed one of Shinjiro’s baggy hoodies his way, making a note to shop for him later on.

And so, here the three of them were, sat at the kitchen table, each with a small amount of food in front of them. Said food Kokichi was prodding with a fork, eying with contempt.

“Is there a problem?” There was no reply. “It’s just shop-bought stuff from the supermarket. And it’s not like it’s poisoned or anything.”

Kokichi set down the fork and smirked. “Funny of you to bring such a thing up, Fukuhara-chan…”

“Ouma-kun! We are no longer in the killing game scenario, not to mention she has taken the effort to take care of you!”

“Where exactly is the effort in finding an oversized hoodie and carrying a lightweight 16-year-old to your house?”

“Sixteen? No way in hell did you get into senior high school aged…” Tomoko paused to do the math, “…aged fourteen!”

“It’s only one year below the normal age, right?”

“Well, yeah, but--”

“Then would it really make that much of a difference?”

“I…guess…not…anyway, is everything okay with you, Kiibo-kun? You haven’t had anything.”

“Unfortunately, I do not have an eating function in me, so am therefore unable to consume food stuffs like everybody else.”

“Oh, I see, my bad.” Tomoko divided the extra food between Kokichi’s and her own plate. “So…SHSL Robot? How does that work, I’ve been wondering?”

“When I was made by Dr. Iidabashi, I had a strong AI implanted in me, which learns and matures the same as a human brain. I also had many additional features installed, including 1.5 vision, an antenna, and a recording function.”

“Not to mention that flashlight.”

“Of course, I apologise for that…I also possess a built-in hairdryer and music player, and my ahoge acts as an antenna. Furthermore, now that I have been rebuilt by Iruma-san, I no doubt have been equipped with a multitude of brand-new features!”

“Like what?”

“I am unsure of the extent of it, but my body feels lighter and stronger than it was before. I predict that my current strength has changed from that of a seven-year-old, to that of an eight-year-old!”

“Is that…really much of a change?”

“However, I _have_ discovered that my new model has eleven languages built into it! As well as Japanese and English that was maintained in my AI, I now also have German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian… _Italienisch, Polnisch, und auch Morseschrift._ _Ouma-kun! Bitte nicht berühren…mon cadran! Ouma-kun!_ ”

“Ouma-kun, knock it off.”

“Jeez, I was just curious…” Kokichi frowned and kept turning the dial until Kiibo’s voice returned to normal. “And all those new things that’ll probably never be used, yet she couldn’t muster the skill to give you an eating function? Wow…”

“Well,” Tomoko set her fork down, “I _would_ ask how Ouma-kun’s doing, but it seems like nothing’s really changed.”

“You would not be wrong.”

“Whaaat? Is that really how little Fukuhara-chan cares about me?”

Tomoko made a move to reply, but instead stood up from the table and collected all the plates up, when she heard two loud-ish voices outside her front door.

“Damn it, they’re out already?” She tipped all the leftover food into the bin, re-filling the dishwasher with the plates, and herded both boys into the garage. “Alright, although I’m fine with both of you staying here, those two can’t know about it, otherwise there’ll be far too many questions to deal with. So please, don’t do anything that’ll get their attention.”

Tomoko quickly shut the door before she could hear either of their responses, and ran back towards the rest of the house only to bump into Shinjiro & Ian on the way.

“You’re down here too? We were about to start practicing another song Leon dug up.”

“Has he finally got us to start doing full blown punk?”

“I think so. I’ve never heard of the song before, but the sheet music looks like it is.”

“Great.”

“So then, let’s do this!”

Tomoko suddenly put herself between both guys and the door. “Oh, uh, no, sorry. Hate to ruin the fun but we can’t go in there. Giant leak. Some pipe down there suddenly burst.”

“Pipe? They’re pretty well hidden if that’s the case.”

“Yeah, I thought so too. Must have been a blockage in the pipeline. Bathroom accident…I don’t know.”

“I…see.”

“Anywho, if one of you wouldn’t mind letting Ms. Yukizome know that I won’t be here tomorrow either.”

“Why?”

“Uh, to make sure the plumber doesn’t steal anything from the house? Also, I had to shove my uniform in the hole to stop the entire house flooding.”

“What ever happened to wearing your gym clothes to school instead?”

“They’re in the wash right now.”

“Swimsuit?”

“Okay, do I need to put a ban on anime for a while?”

“Fine, _mom_ , I’ll go.”

A sudden crash from the other side of the garage door drew all three of their attention back.

“You sure it’s just a leak?”

“Uh, yeah, definitely,” Tomoko did her best to downplay what was going on in there. “Probably just broke the pipe off. We’re probably gonna need some extra stuff to fix it. Mind grabbing a couple pillows from Tess’ old room? And if we still have those sleeping bags from freshman year, that might help too.”

“Why those things, specifically?”

“I mean…it’s not like anyone’s using them.” As a final attempt to shoo them away, she cast a nervous grin at them both, probably coming across as more suspicious than before.

“Okay…sure…” Confused, Shinjiro and Ian walked away to do so, Tomoko breathing a sigh of relief once they’d walked back into the kitchen area.

“Crisis averted.”

Tomoko was expecting to see a far worse mess in the garage than she actually stumbled across, with only a pile of DVDs and a broken shelving unit being out of place. And while Kiibo was crouching down and making attempts to clear it up, Kokichi just looked at Tomoko with a blank, unreadable expression.

“What?”

“Wow, Fukuhara-chan, you’re a really bad liar.”

“Does it matter? It worked. Also, can I just say; I’m surprised you didn’t do anything to blow our cover…well, on purpose.”

“Yeah…” He then turned back to his classmate. “Alright then, Kii-boy, hurry up with it. She’s still waiting.”

“For what, exactly?”

“For your apology, duh. Or have you forgotten about your mistake already?”

“Wh-- _you_ were the one who broke it!”

“It doesn’t matter who broke it,” Tomoko cut in before another argument could escalate, “so long as it gets fixed eventually.” She bent over and arranged the disc cases into a crude pile on top of the TV. “There. That’ll have to do for now.”

A knock came from the other side of the garage door. “I’ve got the stuff to stop the leaking. I’ll just leave them out here.”

“Thanks, Shinjiro.”

She waited a few seconds before walking to the door and sliding it open partially, pulling both sleeping bags and pillows into the room, tossing them over her shoulder with one of them accidentally hitting Kiibo in the back of the head.

“I don’t wish to be a nuisance again,” the robot picked up the pillow, “but I don’t sleep like humans do.”

“It’s no problem. So do you need an outlet or something?”

“I think I will be fine for a week or so, but when the time comes, that would be greatly appreciated.” Regardless of what he’d just explained, Kiibo still set up the sleeping bag and pillow he’d been given, with Kokichi doing the same next to him.

“So…now that it’s all but confirmed I’ll be staying here for a while, how exactly do you plan to keep me entertained?”

“Oh, right, that.” Tomoko looked around the room for something. “Well there’s the TV over there, so long as the volume isn’t too loud. And…well, I guess it depends on what exactly you like doing.”

Once both of the temporary beds were set up, Tomoko grabbed a cushion from the sofa and sat herself down with them both.

“So, on a more important note…do you two know what exactly happened in the killing game? After you both died?”

“All I know,” Kiibo said, “is that Saihara-kun, Harukawa-san and Yumeno-san evidently managed to get away from the Tragedy after I destroyed the Academy.”

“You destroyed the entire academy?!” Kokichi leaned in closer to Kiibo, eyes wide in amazement. “That’s way cooler than I thought you were! And you told us you didn’t like ‘reinforcing toxic attitudes that lead to robophobia’…does that mean you’re just as big a liar as I am?”

“Ghh…I am nothing like you, Ouma-kun!”

“ _But for now_ ,” Tomoko raised her voice as to prevent another argument. “other than that, you both know about everything else that happened before?”

The two nodded, Kokichi raising a hand afterwards. “Actually, I still haven’t been told about what happened _after_ Momota-chan was caught.”

“Oh, right. The others said you came up with a super complex plan to stop the mastermind.”

“And Saihara-chan had to go and ruin it,” Kokichi muttered.

“I will admit, what we did learn of it was impressive. We all came close to failing that Class Trial because of you.”

“I wasn’t really able to find out the true extent of that case from your classmates, so if you remember well enough, would you mind telling me?”

“Hmm…” Kokichi put a hand up to his chin, pondering her request. “I’d love to, but I can’t remember anything about it. Shame, really, if it was nearly able to stump the SHSL Detective himself.” He whistled and put his hands on the floor behind him, leaning back on them, only to pull his body forwards once more when he felt a small pain shoot up his arms. “Of course, that’s another lie. I remember everything about my plan.”

“Okay, so, can you--”

“ _Buuut…_ I don’t see any reason why I _should_ tell you.” This time his hands went behind his head, a smug grin on his face. “The only thing about me you should be concerning yourself with, is making sure I don’t die again.”

Tomoko sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I should have expected that reaction. It’s not for me. It’s for Kirigiri-san…uh, Kyoko Kirigiri, the other SHSL Detective, to try and work out who the real mastermind is.”

“Real mastermind?”

“Shirogane-san was exposed as the mastermind of your killing game, but Saihara-kun has doubts about whether or not it was really her. So if he and Kirigiri-san were to work together, maybe they could reveal something.”

“Hmm, you never can tell. All that anime could have messed with her head and driven her insane. Well, if it hadn’t already.”

“At least this makes early-Shinjiro sound saner by…wait a minute, don’t think you can distract me that easily!”

“But it worked for a moment.” Kokichi’s grin widened. “Didn’t it?”

“Ouma-kun, this investigation won’t go anywhere, unless you cooperate.”

“I would have assumed that you’d figured out by now, that Ouma-kun isn’t exactly the cooperative type,” Kiibo interjected. “He always went off on his own to investigate inside the Ultimate Academy.”

“Was he always like that? Before the killing game, I mean.”

“At first, yes, but he did eventually open up to the rest of the class. Albeit, not fully.”

“Real nice, you two,” Kokichi said. “Talking about me like I’m not in the room. Also, you went off topic again.”

Kiibo sighed and Tomoko groaned in response.

_This is going to be a long afternoon…_

…

In the end, badgering Kokichi for his own information on the killing game didn’t yield any kind of result, but on the bright side, what Kiibo went on to tell her did match up with the details she’d been given from Shuichi. Now it was only going to be how they’d even got into that situation that she wanted to know. That, and whatever Kokichi was hiding.

The day after taking them in, Tomoko had taken the leap and gone out to get Kokichi some of his own things – the giant Saitama hoodie was starting to look ridiculous – leaving Kiibo alone with him temporarily. It didn’t surprise her to see the two quarrelling in the main room when she returned. She had no clue what the hell he’d prefer, so just went ahead and got absolutely anything that might work.

Kokichi ended up picking out a plain white top with purple on the ends of the sleeves, and the slightly darker purple trousers, keeping his old shoes and scarf. The rest of the clothes – a dark hoodie, a longer black top, purple dungarees, a ripped pair of jeans, and some pyjamas – remained stuffed inside a chequerboard patterned rucksack.

“Where did you find the money to afford all this?!”

“I’m not much of a shopper, so there was plenty to spare. You sure you didn’t need anything different, too?”

“I appreciate your concern, but I am fine for now.”

On that same day, Tomoko started to get a better gauge on what each boy liked to do in their free time. While Kiibo was fond of most anime films & shows, Kokichi didn’t like them due to their “unrelatable plots” and being too “childish”, but they both liked manga and comedy. Over the few days they’d been cooped up in the garage for, Kokichi had cleared through most of the video games in the house, and Kiibo had done the same with Shinjiro’s anime collection – having nothing to do at night time, he would watch them on the TV at a low volume in order to avoid waking up Kokichi.

Speaking of whom, on the third day, she came back from running a quick errand one day, only to find all the manga books, video games and DVDs arranged into one long dominoes trail, running down the stairs, through the hall, across the main room…

“What the hell? How far does this thing go?!”

“Fukuhara-chan! Up here!”

Tomoko dropped her bag down at her feet. Perched on top of the stairs was Kokichi, noticeably balancing himself with one hand on the wall.

“You’re right on time!”

“How many things are in this line?”

“Well there’s the 21 AssClass books, twenty video games, seventy-ish DVDs, plus a couple more books I found in your room…why didn’t you ever mention you knew that much about the Tragedy?”

Tomoko was in shock. “You went through my stuff?! Why?”

“Because I ran out of DVDs.”

“Ugh, whatever, at least it’s someone else who knows about it. Anyway, all this stuff needs to go away, right now! Otherwise Shinjiro and Ian will find out!”

“Oh, so _those_ are their names…which one’s the theatre geek songwriter and which one’s the male Shirogane-chan?”

“Ian’s the songwriter, Shinjiro’s the anime fanatic. And I’m not sure he’d appreciate it if he realised someone went through his anime collection.” Tomoko glanced around. “Also, where’s Kiibo-kun?”

“I locked him in the garage so he wouldn’t be able to stop me. Also, you’re off topic again.”

“Just…come on, help me put this stuff away!”

“I haven’t even had a chance to topple it yet, at least give me that…”

Tomoko glanced to the partially open door, seeing no signs of either boy. “Alright, so long as you’ll help clear it up afterwards. Ouma-kun?”

The supreme leader had vanished from the top of the stairs, having retreated to a hidden part of the upstairs corridor. A few seconds after she noticed, the books along the top of the stairs started falling into one another. Eventually, one of them caused a chain reaction running down each of the steps, the bottom one colliding with the line running through the main room.

Somehow, he’d managed to balance a couple of the boxes onto couch cushions, running the domino trail in all manner of directions – the majority of books & DVDs appeared to be in that one room, snaking in on itself multiple times.

“Is it done yet?” Kokichi called down the stairs to her.

“Near enough. And I’ll admit, the length of it is impressive…”

“That’s what she said.”

“…but right now can you please help with--”

“Oh. So this is what you do in your free time?”

Both Shinjiro and Ian had appeared behind her in the hallway, both of them still holding their school bags, looking in awe at the collapsed domino trail. At a total loss for any kind of plausible excuse she could use, Tomoko stood at the base of the steps in silence, until she thought of something.

“Oh, that darn plumber. Knew I should have left instructions.” She laughed nervously. “Still can’t go in, though. Just in case.”

“Uh, okay. Any idea where in this line he put the comedy movies?”

“I dunno, near the back-right corner?”

“Thanks. So long as nothing’s damaged.”

Both boys, still carrying their things, went into the main room in order to find one of the DVDs they had in mind, Tomoko silently closing the door behind both of them. This blockage gave Kokichi the chance to sneak downstairs.

“As I said before…terrible liar. And that brother of yours…almost as stupid as Momota-chan.”

“Honestly, it’s a surprise even Ian fell for it.”

“So…I guess I can’t head back to the garage until they’re busy so…I’ll be staying in your room for a little longer, ‘kay?”

“Ouma-kun--”

“Thank you~!” Kokichi quickly ran up the stairs towards her room, closing the door hard behind him.

“And I still have to clear all this up. Wonderful.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Chris' special announcement for the cast.


	11. The Greatest Show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Don't you wanna get away from the same old part you gotta play_  
>  _'Cause I got what you need, so come with me and take the ride_  
>  _\- The Other Side, The Greatest Showman_
> 
> Chris reveals his new "business idea" to the rest of the cast.

“Do you have any idea how close you were to giving everything away?”

“I’m not an idiot. I made sure to keep the stuff about the Tragedy in a place they couldn’t see.”

“That is not what I was referring to! Messing around outside the garage when Shinjiro-kun and Ian-kun were due to return home!”

“Well you were the one banging on the garage door. Were you _trying_ to get us caught?”

“Only because you _locked_ the door!”

“Will you two please give it a rest for once?” Tomoko collected what was left of Kokichi’s breakfast, dropping one of the drug bottles into its place. “You need to take this. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you skipping out on it.”

“Alright, _mom_.” He tipped two of the pills onto his hand, downing them both dry. “Done. Are you happy now?”

“Not really. I’ve been told I need to go back to school today.” She slid her blazer on. “Apparently, they need everyone present for some reason.”

“And that makes you unhappy…because…?”

“There’s probably going to be questions about where I’ve been, which is always fun. Kiibo-kun, I assume you can be trusted to keep everything in order?”

“Actually, I was wondering if I could come along with you. It interests me to learn more about the rest of your fellow students, and I feel somebody should inform the rest of my classmates about Ouma-kun’s condition.” Kiibo glanced down at him, who was now reading one of Tomoko’s books. “Not to mention, I am not so keen on spending the entire day alone with Ouma-kun.”

“Come on, Kii-boy! I’m not _that_ bad, am I?”

“Sorry, Kiibo-kun,” she stuffed the last couple of items into her school bag, “but we can’t leave him alone. You never know when something can go wrong – even the smallest thing relating to his cause of death can…”

Tomoko trailed off, recalling what Kiyotaka had told her about the renewed headaches, after being hit by something as small as a book.

_Ishimaru-kun…café…Neo Remnants…Kurokami…_

“Fukuhara-san? You’re sweating quite a lot all of a sudden.”

“D-don’t worry about it. Back on the subject, you can’t just abandon him in his current condition because of a couple of…robophobic comments.”

“Actually, it extends beyond the continuous robophobia.” Kiibo cleared his non-existent throat. “But I shall do my best to ensure things run smoothly for the day!”

“Thanks Kiibo-kun.” Tomoko wiped the final traces of sweat off of her face before opening the door. “And although I lied about the leak in the garage, you don’t actually have to find an excuse to create one so…both of you, just be careful. Oh right, and no more dominoes.”

She almost changed her mind and turned around as she heard Kokichi call “no promises” back at her, but continued, nonetheless.

…

Despite this being her first day back at school in a week, not many people outside paid her much attention. Instead of expecting someone to approach her, she listened in on those around her in an attempt to find out if anyone knew about what was happening.

“You got the message, then?”

“Any clue what it’s all about?”

“None of us have a clue. All we know is it came from Chris.”

“Well that probably can’t be good.”

“We don’t have to be part of another season, do we? Because if so, I must _un_ kindly decline!”

Tomoko groaned silently.

“Chris. Fantastic.”

As outside, nobody in the entrance hall paid her much attention, instead busy in conversation with one another. It made her happy when she saw Tenko talking with Sky, with Himiko close by discussing magic with Leonard & Tammy. The whole mood between those two students was far lighter than it had been when they’d all been confined to that one building, so she was interested to see how the others were faring.

Tenko gave her a smile on her way past, which Tomoko returned, continuing to the doorway at the other end of the entrance hall in search of some kind of answer.

“Now to find out what exactly was so important…that…”

_…hold on. Tammy doesn’t go to this school._

Stopping in the doorway, Tomoko did a double take at the ‘magical’ trio that had formed – sure enough, Tammy was there in the same Viking cosplay that she was in for the Ridonculous Race, in contrast to the other two wearing NHPA uniforms.

“What exactly is she doing here? Seems a bit late for new students…”

Confused, she kept going, identifying other students making their way towards the gymnasium, and since she’d probably missed something as a result of her absence, she chose to ask others along the way about what was happening, but nobody had any semblance of an idea. Not to mention all of her closer friends were nowhere to be found.

Closer to the gym’s entrance, she spotted Sierra talking with the Police Cadets. _If Chris is arranging this, then Sierra should have the most knowledge of it._

“You three!” She ran over towards them, lightly bumping into another person. “Do you have any idea why exactly everyone is needed here?”

“I want to say yes,” Sierra said, “but I can’t.”

“Really? You too? They really are being secretive about all this.”

“Not to mention I spotted a couple others from the Race outside the academy.”

“I guess there’s only one way to find out,” MacArthur went ahead of the other three girls and pushed the door open, with the others following behind.

“Well with any luck, we’ll get all the answers we need when--”

“Oh, hell no! Not you two again!”

The other three girls turned to MacArthur, who had spotted two familiar faces already in the crowd…and clearly, she was not happy.

“Great, here we go again.”

“I should have seen this coming.”

Right in the middle of the gym, MacArthur had already managed to get Josee – one half of the infamous Ice Dancers team – into a firm headlock, garnering a handful of cheers from other former Racers.

“I should probably help break them up.”

“You don’t wanna watch?”

“As satisfying as it is, I don’t want this to become a regular thing every time they happen to run into one another.”

Sanders then ran over to her partner and attempted to pull her off of Josee, with her own partner Jacques doing the same.

Before she herself could possibly be pulled into the fight, Tomoko high-tailed it over to her Light Music Club group, stood off to the side.

“Hey, Tomo! You okay?”

“Doing good. I had a load of personal arrangements to deal with at home.”

“So long as you’re fine.” Amy gave her a smile. “And now onto the topic at hand, you were one of Chris’ peons, right? Any idea what exactly he needs us all for?”

“Nope. Even the superfan herself doesn’t have any idea.”

“Well I think it’s fair to say if… _they’re_ back,” she glanced towards the Ice Dancers, “then it’s something to do with Total Drama.”

“Or the Ridonculous Race.”

“Or both.”

Suddenly, a loud air horn sound rang out through the gym, causing everyone present to cover their ears as a result of the painful microphone feedback.

“Attention potential players!”

All heads then turned to the stage, where Chris, holding his air horn, stood behind the microphone stand. On one side of him near the back was Chef, with Don on the other side.

“For those of you who are new to this place, welcome to the Neo Hope’s Peak Academy! For those who aren’t, I hope your studies are going well!” He dropped the air horn onto the floor, slotting the microphone back onto its stand. “Now, no doubt you are all wondering why I’ve called everyone here. And why some of the former Ridonculous Race contestants are here right now.”

MacArthur and Josee glared at one another once again at this.

“Well, you have no need to think about it anymore. Right here, right now, everything will be revealed to you! Starting today, Don and I are going into a joint business venture, let’s call it.

“As you are all no doubt aware, we transformed the first year of school life at the Neo Hope’s Peak into a hidden camera show. Which, in all hindsight, was an ill-informed decision.” Chris paused and glanced down at Byakuya in the main area, clearly having given him a look which forced him to make that last comment. “For more reasons than one. But anyway, while that series itself proved to be _slightly_ more popular than Pahkitew Island, the overall popularity of Total Drama has gone into decline since then. Fan approval is in decline, forums dying…fair to say, not the end I hoped Total Drama would go out on.”

“Cut to the chase, McLean!” One of the students called out from the crowd.

“Which is why starting next week, Chef, Don and I will be leading an event known as The Trials!”

A few murmurs went around the room, most of confusion but a distinct few of…fear? One of which didn’t quite slip under everyone’s radar.

“Ibuki?” Both Amy and Kitty looked over at their friend. “Your personality’s taken a nose dive – are you okay?”

“Oh, yeah, Ibuki’s totally fine!” While Amy & Kitty fell for it, a highly nervous Tomoko knew better than to do the same.

“For ten weeks, all participants will be competing in a series of challenges – some old ones from past seasons, and some new ones being put forward by Don and myself. And who knows, maybe a couple from you guys if they’re appropriate enough!”

“So, to scale things down,” Duncan raised a hand, “you’re asking us to do your intern work for you? Because last time I checked, that was why you let Tomoko into this place.”

“Hey!”

“Oh, it’s more than just that. All the players will complete the challenges in teams, at the same time earning points for their victories. Once the ten weeks are over, the two teams with the most points, will be the ones to take part in our second all-star season, for the chance to win another one…million…dollars! So, who’s interested?”

There was now a lot more excitement and enthusiasm about the idea, with groups of friends muttering among themselves.

“Another chance at the million? Count me in!”

“Whooo! Awesome!”

“Finally, a chance to win back _my_ million.”

“This time, the gold _will_ be ours!”

“After years of watching the show, I finally get a chance to be on it! And in the actual location, too!”

“A monetary prize, at the perfect time to put it to use…”

Another air horn noise cut through all the chatter.

“Now that I officially have your interest, does anyone have any questions about these Trials?” Again, Tomoko winced at his naming choice, watching as a handful of hands went into the air. “Yes, Jasmine?”

“Is this going to take place on Pahkitew Island again? Or did you manage to sink that one too?”

“Yes, it will be. But fortunately, the system is back online, so there should _hopefully_ be no technical issues this year. Also, most of the living areas should be pre-built, so no need to worry about that. Yes, Sierra?”

“Are we actually allowed to bring electronics devices with us this time?”

“Even though you would have smuggled your phone in anyway, yes, due to the talents of some of the students here, I think it would be easier for the academy to allow participants to bring phones, tablets, laptops etc. onto the island with them. For the same reason, those with pets like DJ, Gundam and Ennui can bring said pets with them…so long as they aren’t deadly.

“Anyone else?” No more hands. “Anyone at all? Great! With all that out of the way, Chef will now be coming round with application forms for anyone interested. Be sure to hand them back into the headmaster of the Neo Hope’s Peak within two days. Oh, right, one more thing. For…reasons, whether or not you want to take part in the trials, everyone has to be present.”

“Reasons?”

“Long story. And I think that’s everything now, so I’ll see all of you outside the school gates on Sunday morning!”

<p></p>

Thanks to his latest development, Chris was able to head backstage feeling very satisfied with the reaction. At least, until Tomoko and Byakuya shattered it.

“ _The Trials_? Are you serious?!”

“What were you thinking?!”

“Okay! I’ll admit, that was _also_ an ill-informed decision, but it was the most appealing name I could think of.”

“For the Total Drama cast, maybe.”

“And now that problem’s been addressed,” Tomoko looked to her boss, “I’m assuming you need me to help as an intern for whatever reason, rather than acting as one of the players.”

“It’s like Duncan said. Everyone’s essentially an intern during the…” he paused under Byakuya’s cold glare, “during the game. So if you really want to be in for a chance of getting onto a season of the show, be my guest.”

He handed her a spare application form, which Tomoko looked at with intrigue. While she’d never really had an interest in taking part on Total Drama, she had to admit, it would be a fun experience. And besides, having herself tried a number of the previous challenges, she could offer her potential teammates/alliance members with tips. Not to mention it would be the perfect distraction from recent events.

Oh, right, and on that note…

“Do you have two other forms I can take?”

…

The smaller absentee dropped his application form onto the floor.

“Why would I want to waste my time on some dumb show Momota-chan wouldn’t shut up about?”

“I too am unsure about this. The series looked rather…unsafe.”

“You’re both sure? A season of Total Drama sounds like the type of place I’d expect to find someone like Ouma-kun. Either that, or I leave you here to fend for yourself.”

“I’ve lived through the apocalypse twice. I think I’m better adjusted to fend for myself than you are, Fukuhara-chan.”

“Sure, I don’t doubt it. But there’s only so many times you can watch the same films, play the same games, and read the same books over and over again, without getting bored.”

Tomoko’s phone then buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and entered Chihiro’s app, seeing that all of her closest friends had already submitted their application forms for the Trials – Ibuki, Shinjiro, Ian, Leon, Sayaka, Kitty, Amy…she had not expected such a turn-out of popularity.

“From the looks of things, there’s a load of interest.” Tomoko looked back at her phone. “More than I would have ever expected.”

“How can one even benefit from taking part?” Kiibo asked.

“Well, they’re running the Trials based on a system meaning the winners will get to take part in the next – and probably final – season of Total Drama.” At the mention of the event’s name, Kiibo & Kokichi stared at her wide-eyed. “Yeah. He couldn’t have picked a worse name.”

“Wait, does that mean this Chris man is aware of the Tragedy?”

“Once again, long story.”

“Yeah, yeah, about this new season.” Kokichi returned to the initial topic of discussion again. “Does that mean there’ll still be a million-dollar prize?”

“Yes. So long as Chris isn’t going to give all the losers a chance to win it later on, throw it down a volcano, or use it to pay for a future series.” Tomoko counted each option off on her fingers.

Kiibo looked once more at the sheet. “Why not? Dangerous as it may be, the experience will be something unique.”

“Well…as long as it isn’t boring, it could be a good idea, I guess.”

“Great. So just fill those forms out, I’ll get them back to Hope’s Peak, and we leave for the island on Sunday morning.”

Tomoko rummaged for a pen for each one of the boys to use, her only real concern about the Trials now being how to hide the Japanese Hope’s Peak’s condition not just from her fellow students, but also from _the entire_ previous Total Drama cast, and of course continuing to monitor Kokichi and possibly the rest of his classmates in case one of them were to have a sudden relapse in their condition…

 _…so much for a pleasant distraction_.


	12. Voorpret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Voorpret – n. pre-fun, the sense of enjoyment felt before a party or event takes place (Dutch)_
> 
> Final preparations are underway for the Trials.

Stood in the doorway, his clothing slightly ruckled, Shinjiro suppressed a yawn. “I haven’t had to get up this early since I was working at McDonalds.”

“7am is nothing.” Ian took a swig out of his coffee mug. “Also, you only had that job two years ago.”

“You two are only so cool with it because you’re used to it. And for the record, it wasn’t 7am, it was 5:30! For all three of us.”

“Sure. Because all three of us take ninety minutes to shower and get dressed.”

Tomoko tapped her foot impatiently. “Are we going yet? There’s only so many times Chef’s willing to give people lifts to Pahkitew Island.”

“Sure. I think I’ve got everything I need.” Shinjiro unzipped the top of his suitcase to check. “PJs, cleaning stuff, tablet…that ought to do it.”

“Oh, right, I forgot a couple things.” Tomoko set her own (smaller) case to the side. “You two go ahead, I’ll catch up with you. Either of you need anything while I’m at it?”

“Could you grab an extra notebook from my desk?”

“Because four isn’t enough…”

“Sure thing. I’ll see you later.”

Ian led the way out of the house and towards the Neo Hope’s Peak. As the door closed behind them both, Tomoko waited a few seconds until she turned towards the garage.

“All clear!” A moment passed before Kokichi came out the door, carrying his new rucksack, all the new clothes still stuffed inside it. “You’re absolutely sure you don’t want to catch up with your classmates?”

“Yeah, I doubt they’d be all that excited to see me. I didn’t have the best reputation in my class.”

“Don’t remind me.” Tomoko quickly ran up the stairs and retrieved the cardboard box from under her bed. Since there hadn’t been an awful lot in there to help with memories, she’d taken to keeping some more helpful things in there alongside them, a few of which she crammed into the bottom of her rucksack.

Once she was certain everything was in and well-hidden, she cleared the stairs until she was with the boys in the front porch. “But this obsession with avoiding the rest of the 79th Class, are you sure it isn’t the result of something that happened during the killing game?”

“Maybe it was because I killed someone, or made an attempt on someone’s life. The less you know, the easier things are, Fukuhara-chan.”

 _Too late,_ she thought. “Somehow I think there’s more to it than that.”

Kokichi threw his hands behind his head and started to walk off. “Who knows? I am a liar after all.”

Tomoko watched him, feeling a mixture of suspicion and concern inside her. With all this hiding, it was possible he could be hiding his own knowledge relating to the SHSL Despair. With the time she’d spent with his classmates, they didn’t have the most glowing opinion of him – before or during the killing game. But then again, his lying could well be a way of hiding some kind of negative past issue from everyone.

“I wouldn’t bother, Fukuhara-san.” Kiibo appeared behind her. “It’ll be a miracle if you can get any truth out of him.”

She sighed in response. “Maybe you’re right. Let’s just go.”

<p></p>

From the looks of things, not too many people were waiting for a new bus. Bridgette and Leshawna were at the front of the line trying to make conversation with Toko, with Shinjiro and Komaru behind them having a conversation of their own. Oddly enough, Ian was no longer with him.

“It’s coming together really well! The story’s under continuous development, I just need to focus on character designs for a while.”

“You don’t seem to have needed any other help from me since our last meeting. My recommendations were that useful, huh?”

“I guess so. So hopefully over the next ten weeks, I can get inspiration for some of the designs! I also need to find the creepy anthropologist.”

“Creepy…anthropologist?”

“Oh, one of the new students. The one with the mask and long hair. That’s what Toko-chan called him. Anyway, it’s for some inspiration for names.”

Kokichi leaned in to Tomoko. “She’s not wrong about him, you know. What are those two even talking about?”

“Shinjiro’s helping Komaru-san write a manga. You know, being SHSL Anime Fanatic at all.”

“I see. Looks like he isn’t missing any opportunity to extend his nerdiness to the rest of the academy.”

Tomoko opened her mouth to protest, but stopped. “Actually, you would be right in a way.”

A flash of light distracted the pair, coming from the front of the line.

“Kii-boy, do you have to show off your ‘special features’ here?”

“It wasn’t my fault!”

“Heh, sorry.” Komaru scratched at the back of her head, holding her phone in one hand. “It’s for reference purposes.”

“Yeah, we heard.” Tomoko rubbed her eyes. “What’s this manga of yours even got to do with us?”

“Some of the character designs I want to base on all of you. What better opportunity than now?”

“Well, it’s likely the only way you’ll be able to get everyone in the same place at the same time.”

At that moment, Chef pulled up in front of the group in a battered looking bus, heavy levels of exhaust fumes descending on the small group.

“I am detecting high levels of pollutants in this vehicle’s exhaust fumes…are you sure about this, Fukuhara-san?”

Tomoko grinned, picking up her suitcase. “Welcome to Total Drama. There’s no escaping now.”

One by one, each person in the group walked up to the side of the bus and stashed their larger bags into the compartment, before boarding the bus. Tomoko was near the back of the group, while Kokichi was all too eager to run straight onto the bus, having no larger bags that needed to be loaded in.

When Tomoko was the only one left, she herself boarded. The inside reminded her a lot of the Mexican chicken bus…sans the chickens. And all the poo that would come with them. Everyone else was already sat down – Bridgette & Leshawna sat together near the back on the left, Toko & Komaru in the middle on the same side, with Shinjiro beside Kiibo in the seats next to them. Kokichi had taken the window seat directly in front of them.

“Fukuhara-chan, you don’t mind if I take the window seat?”

“Uh, no?”

“Who is he, by the way?” Shinjiro asked. “And the robot next to me? No offence.”

“You know all those new students who started on Monday? They’re part of their group – Kiibo, SHSL Robot, and Kokichi Ouma, SHSL Supreme Leader.”

“Oh, so he’s the other one you worked with during the festival?”

“Yep. Although he wasn’t _quite_ so aggravating at the time…”

Kokichi just grinned as a response.

“So you’ve been with him all week then?”

“Long story short, I already had a couple of connections with some of the others, and they wanted me to look after him.” Tomoko paused as she realised the questions that last part could raise. “B-because he was really ill before coming over here. Nothing serious, don’t worry.”

“And…Kiibo was absent too…because he wouldn’t be able to contract anything?”

“Now you’re catching on. By the way, it wasn’t anything contagious.” Tomoko looked up and down the bus. “On a similar note, where’d Ian get to?”

“This is only the third bus so far. They had a feeling more than a few people would be lying-in this morning. Ian got onto the second bus, which left just as we got here.”

Chef closed the door as the last in the group boarded the bus. “We’ll be waitin’ here a while, just to fill a few more seats.”

With a little time before things got too loud, Shinjiro leaned over the seats in front of him and Kiibo. “Here’s hoping for a good team in all this. Sis, you’re something of an active spectator of Total Drama – what kind of people would you want to be put with?”

Tomoko leaned against the armrest, thinking about the question. “I’d prefer a team with experienced former players, hopefully no full-on strategists like Heather and Alejandro, and maybe a couple of unlikeable ones.”

“Why, exactly?”

“Well, if the team made it onto the all-star series, it’d be harder to compete against the strategists, wouldn’t it? Plus, the less-likeable ones would – hopefully – be the first to go.”

Shinjiro considered her answer. “That makes good sense, actually. One can hope.” He then looked over at the other. “And, uh, Ouma, was it? Any thoughts on this?”

“I don’t really care. If things get boring, I’ll just be sure to have fun with whoever I end up with.” His face had gone from innocent to borderline demonic in an instant.

“Right, well…let’s hope I’m not with you then.” Shinjiro sat back down as a couple more people boarded the bus.

“At the very least,” Tomoko said to herself, “it’s going to be interesting to see what happens…”

…

In the meantime, both Chris and Don had set up base on Pahkitew Island, waiting for the participants to arrive. With Chris being the main face behind the entire event, he had to quickly brief Don on everything before getting started.

“The island is still running smoothly; we just have to make sure nobody else breaks into the underground control room. Speaking of which, we only go down there in case of a crisis – having to get the technology back under control, the wildlife or a cast member going insane, stormy weather…basically, so long as there’s a good reason.”

“And you have the password this time, right?”

“Yes, I’m not making the same mistake twice.” The phone in Chris’ pocket buzzed, a text from Chef having come through. “Chef’s about to leave the academy with the third bus of kids – that Daisaku guy’s not far behind him.”

“And how much longer until everything’s ready for them?”

“The tents are nearly set up, the mess hall is almost fully stocked, all we’re waiting on now is the wizard’s tower. So there’s nothing to worry about with the timing.”

“The what?”

“Hm? Oh, the wizard’s tower. It’s one of the places where the players will be staying. With so many, you have to go with anything you can get your hands on.”

“On that note, is there _anyone_ who wasn’t interested in taking part?”

Chris looked through the paperwork. “Uh, let’s see…Kelly and Taylor, Dwayne, Emma, the Tennis Rivals, Gwen, almost everyone from the Foundation…woah, woah, woah!”

“What?”

“Get this: _Courtney_ , the infamous lawyer-shark, doesn’t want to take part!”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Don asked. “I mean, no risk of lawyers swooping in on the smallest thing.”

“Oh, yeah. Just came as a surprise, is all.”

Don took the files and stashed them back in one of the drawers. “Chris, about these Future Foundation people…wouldn’t it have just been easier to leave them behind?”

“There’s good reason why I’ve got them involved.”

“And that would be?” Don asked. “I’ve seen your show; I know how dangerous things could get. It wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would it?”

“I’ve been working closely with a member of the Foundation for a few years now, and from the sounds of things, a group they’ve had their eye on since their inception, are regaining power. The Foundation leaders are here so we’ll all be protected from any potential attacks against the organisation.”

“Couldn’t that endanger the rest of the group, if something did happen?”

“I know enough about what they’ve been dealing with to know how dangerous things could get. Which is why there’s a number of back-up plans, ready for the moment when something goes wrong.”

“Caring this much about their welfare? Since when is that in character with you?”

Chris quickly looked out the door to the room they were in. Seeing nobody else around, he turned back to his rival-co-host. “Right, what I’m about to tell you, _cannot_ reach the kids. **_At all_** _._ We clear?”

Don gulped. It was rare to see Chris this serious when it didn’t relate to lawsuits or ratings. “Crystal.”

“Good. So, here’s what the Foundation are so worked up about…”


	13. Prelude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Neo Remnant's next move is discussed, and the players arrive at Pahkitew Island for the Trials, Tomoko finally learning more about Kokichi on the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No more "next time" bits at the end. Also, apologies about the two-week delay - there'll probably be many more of these in the future.

The atmosphere surrounding Pahkitew Island and the Neo Hope’s Peak Academy was positive on the whole, in preparation for the all-star series’ pre-game. Unfortunately, the same atmosphere wasn’t shared everywhere.

Quite a distance away from the location of the Neo Hope’s Peak, in an abandoned house, the Neo Remnant leader Shiori Kurokami, had called for one of her colleagues – the other perpetrator of the last attack, Haiji Towa.

“What was so important that you needed me back here?”

“Updates. Important ones, at that.”

“Go on then.”

“First things first, the addition you wanted is complete.” Shiori retrieved a rather heavy cardboard box from under her seat. “I hope you appreciate how much effort it took to get you this. Especially because you essentially demanded I get it for you.”

Haiji took the box on his lap, opening it with his one arm. Shiori couldn’t see the item itself, but from the grin on his face, Haiji was pleased.

“It’s perfect. Thanks.” He set the box down on the floor.

“Secondly, I need you to use this addition of yours for another attack. Against the Future Foundation.” She noted the evil look spreading over his face at this. “Our plans are still running smoothly, but we still need a little more. And Future Foundation has the technology we need. Can you get a hold of it for me?”

“Gladly. But I’m gonna need a hand with this thing first. If I’m going to be doing more killing, one arm won’t be enough, or else it’ll be another failure.”

“Another? What exactly was the first one?” Shiori asked him, before realising what he meant – the café. “Ah, I see. No, that was all according to plan in the long run. Of course, aside for the unexpected visitor.”

“You didn’t really make that clear, though. Maybe if you took a bigger part in some of your plans, the rest of us wouldn’t be so confused about how they turn out.”

“I could well do so, but I’m something of a recluse – confrontations like the ones you deal with aren’t my thing.”

“So it would seem.” Haiji stood up from his seat, taking the box under his good arm. “Anything else I need to know?”

“Once you’re done, I’m expecting you back here. We finally have another chance for things to work in our favour. And should you find her at Future Foundation, be sure to let Reaper know the same thing. She’s currently meeting with an insider over there.”

“And the other two?”

“Are of no concern to me at the moment. One is already occupied with another job, the other is working under Reaper’s orders.”

“Right. Well, I’ll be sure to head out within the next few days. After you’ve got me hooked up.” With that, he left the room, leaving Shiori alone. She reclined back in her seat and reached for a laptop, when Haiji immediately returned.

“Wait.” He burst back into the room. “What’s to stop the Foundation from increasing their defences after the last attack we pulled on them?”

“Believe me,” a rare smirk passed over Shiori’s face, “all the higher-up members are pre-occupied with another job for now, as are many lower ranking members. And the moment we have everything we need, we’ll be heading straight for them.”

* * *

 

_Meanwhile, on a lake somewhere in Western Canada…_

“No, not at the moment, Dogami. I’ll inform you when things are sorted on this end, then you can send them over. We can’t overwhelm everyone too much.”

Kyosuke hung up the call, looking out over the lake, before moving to a different part of the yacht.

A little further away from where he had just been stood, yet just out of earshot of his phone conversation, were Tomoko and Kiibo, who were also taking in the scenery. Their bags rested on top of a pile of crates beside them.

“The Canadian countryside is a lot more pleasant than I expected, especially given what I saw of the show.”

“That’s what I thought when I started working on the show, too.”

“Although the air doesn’t appear to be the freshest…”

“That might have something to do with the island.”

“Ah, I see. If I recall, it was wholly artificial, correct?”

“Yeah. But the whole thing should be under control by now.”

To the pair’s left, a group of Kiibo’s classmates emerged from the front of the yacht – Kaito, Maki, Shuichi and Kaede. They quickly noticed the two.

“Hey, Kiibo! Fukuhara!”

“Oh, you four!”

Upon seeing him again, Kaede and Kaito ran towards the robot, pulling him into a hug, although Kaito’s was rougher than Kaede’s. Shuichi and Maki weren’t as eager in their reunion, yet still taking the time to greet him.

“Oh, that’s right,” Tomoko said. “This is the first time in a few months you’ve all been together, isn’t it?”

“That’s right,” Maki said.

“On a similar note,” Shuichi asked, “isn’t Ouma-kun with you?”

“Uh, we got on the boat with him, but he wanted to be alone for the rest of the journey. No idea where he’s got to.”

“And, uh, is he doing okay?”

“Nothing serious. Just still kind of weak is all.” She paused. “Tell me something, Saihara-kun. What exactly was Ouma-kun’s relationship with all of you?”

“Before, or during the ki--” Shuichi cut himself off as he saw a pair of Total Drama contestants rounding the corner. “…the you-know-what?”

“Both would be helpful.”

Shuichi hesitated. “Ouma-kun was hard for everyone to get along with at first, but over time, he became friends with most of us, much like the 77th Class. In the killing game, however…”

“We all hated him.” Maki’s statement was blunt and to the point. “Especially me.”

“Y-yes. As Shinguji-kun said before, a few of our personalities and memories were altered slightly. At first, Ouma-kun was mostly the same as he was at Hope’s Peak, but as the events unfolded, he became more and more…well, evil. Like he enjoyed the killing game, _wanted_ to see blood being spilled. In both cases, he did appear to have trust issues, so never truly opened up to anyone. With that in mind, it’s possible he may have been like that before.”

Tomoko looked between the four friends. Shuichi and Kaede glanced down at their feet, Kaito was looking out at the lake, and Maki was no different to how she usually was.

“Right…okay. I guess that helps things a little.”

“You’re not having any problems with him yet, are you?”

“No, just annoying at the worst of times. And I’m not really seeing any proof of trust issues yet – he’s just acting like a massive child.”

A loud horn noise drew the group’s attention to the front of the boat, where Pahkitew Island was finally in view. Kaito led the way, his “sidekicks” and Kiibo following behind. Once Tomoko was sure they were all distracted, she hit the top of one of the crates a few times. Soon after, the lid popped open, Kokichi poking his head out.

“I resent the annoying comment, by the way.”

“For the SHSL Supreme Leader, you’re kind of pathetic, you know that?”

“Trauma isn’t a laughing matter, Fukuhara-chan.”

“How am I supposed to understand said _trauma_ when you wouldn’t provide an explanation for it?” Tomoko looked back over to his classmates. “And the way they described it, you were the one likely to give _them_ traumas.”

Kokichi used the majority of his limited strength to toss the crate’s lid away, leaning against the side of it. “Oh, Fukuhara-chan, you do realise I’m not the _only_ liar around here, don’t you?”

“Damn right.”

“Hm? Come again?”

“Oh, uh, nothing.”

Another horn sounded from above the pair, with Kokichi also looking towards the front of the yacht.

“Woah, is that the transforming island?!”

“Transforming? Well, I guess you could…hey, what are you doing?!”

Kokichi was now climbing out of the box with his bag on one shoulder, pulling himself onto Tomoko’s shoulders for a better view.

“Why couldn’t we just get closer?”

“Didn’t Saihara-chan just give you the answer to that?” He looked back up. “Does the island still go crazy? Is one half still on fire? Do you think I can get Scarlett-chan to do something about it?”

As Kokichi fired off rapid questions about the state of Pahkitew Island, Tomoko thought on his words. She didn’t believe there to be any reason why Shuichi or his classmates would lie, but still didn’t put it past them to be hiding some details about what happened.

Well, at least there were ten weeks for her to try and work out what, exactly.

…

By almost midday, everybody had arrived on the island, the whole group gathered around their bags, which had been dumped in one large pile. A couple of participants on the first boat had got tired of waiting, so had downed their lunches before the inevitable early challenge Chris would spring upon them. Speaking of whom, Chris appeared from what looked like the spa hotel alongside Chef and Don.

“Welcome, everyone, to Pahkitew Island! I think we’ve kept you all waiting long enough, so here’s how your first challenge in these Trials is going to work. For starters, this is your average team sorting challenge, and since there are so many of you taking part – 126 of you, to be precise – it had to be something big in order to better thin the herd. It’ll be comprised of part obstacle course, and part sprint. However you place by the end, will determine what your teams will look like. The first half of the course was taken from the season five Obsta-Kill course, which will be run individually, every player for themselves. All the obstacles will be the same – tyres, climbing wall, snapping bars, and the Duck and Cover. After completing that area, you’ll reach a checkpoint, where you’ll pick up a partner, and a pack filled with ziplining equipment.”

“Now, after multiple letters from certain _aikido practitioners_ ,” Chris glanced towards Tenko for a split second, “I have decided that all the teams will be separated by gender, so with that in mind, you’re going to have to partner up with people of the same gender.

“Once you’ve completed the zipline with your partner, you’ll enter into part two, which is a long sprint to the finish line. On the way, however, some of the non-contestants will be throwing things at you, in order to hinder some of you. We wouldn’t want all the strongest players ending up on the same teams, would we?

“However, to mix things up a little more, we’ll be scattering a few of these along the way.” Chris revealed two miniature Chris heads of different colours. “There are a couple of green ones, but only one blue one. I won’t be telling you what they do, but as a quick hint – the green ones should alter a few team sizes, and as for the blue…” Chris laughed. “Well, let’s just say it could make things quite interesting depending on who picks it up.”

That did nothing to reassure the players, most of them exchanging nervous looks.

“The teams will be sorted by Don at the other end, based on where each pairing finishes – the first five of each gender will form one team, then the next five form the second team, and so on. Once everyone’s finished, each team will be assigned their living quarters, where you’ll be staying for the next ten weeks. Everyone clear on the rules?”

The majority of people nodded.

“In that case, everyone make your way to the starting line!”

Very much like during the school festival, all the more competitive players shoved their way towards the front of the crowd, as did a handful of the more hopeful, weaker ones. As before, Tomoko had been forced in the cluster of people in the middle, coincidentally right next to Amy.

“At least this beats falling out of a zeppelin. A run and an obstacle course? This’ll be easy.”

“I guess, but you still don’t know what’ll come up on the course, do you?”

“So, you do?”

“This time, no. Now that I’m just competing like everyone else, we’re on even ground.”

With everyone in position, Chris had his airhorn at the ready.

_This is it…season 7, here we come!_

“On your marks…get set…”

_Here goes nothing, then._

“Go!”


	14. Dream Teams?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first challenge begins, and not everyone is happy with the teams they end up in...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So when I said future chapters may be slower and longer...this one crossed 6000 words, and so does the next one. And I'm still not too pleased with this one, but whatever.

Barely halfway through challenge number one, after ten minutes, and Tomoko already felt like maiming her boss.

What he had failed to mention at the start of the challenge was not only would the Obsta-Kill course be making a return, but everyone would have to face the Mad Skills course immediately before it.

A fair number of players had been forced to redo the different stages of the course multiple times, or wait for a long time for some space to clear at each stage. Hell, some of the smarter ones were waiting for the cannonball run to…well, run out of cannonballs, to make the course that bit easier. Mikan was forced to abandon her position in the top half to attend to a few of the more worse off people. And with all the chaos going on, even some of the more physically gifted players fell behind. Chris had really outdone himself this year.

By the time Tomoko herself completed the Mad Skills course and reached to the tyres, the only other people in sight were Amy, not that much further ahead of her, and Sakura even further in front. No doubt there were others who’d already cleared the first stage, but Tomoko wasn’t the type to worry about that.

This was exactly the kind of situation where she could use her time interning to her advantage, and she didn’t hesitate to exploit it for all it was worth. _It’s not cheating_ , she told herself, _it’s experience_.

Although she knew what kind of things would be coming up as obstacles, as long as she ran along the edges of the types, there wouldn’t be any problems with avoiding the spurts of water, giant holes, logs, abnormally large boxing gloves, hammers, blue idols, fire, beavers…

Wait, blue idol?

Inside one of the tyres, quite terribly hidden, was the one and only blue idol. Which obviously was a sign that something would happen the moment she tried to reach for it.

Instead of just dropping her hand in, she slid her hoodie off her shoulders and slowly lowered it into the hole, retracting it immediately as another large spurt of water erupted from below. Tomoko stepped back and waited a few seconds, the high pressure burst throwing the ball out of its spot, allowing her to catch it before it fell back down again.

Once all the water cleared, she put her hoodie back on and stuffed the idol into one of her pockets, making sure none of the players behind her noticed it, before running over to the climbing wall.

…

_Twenty minutes in…_

Both Leon and Ian were part of the unlucky group who were still stuck right at the beginning of the course, having to perch on one of the shaky pillars in order to make room. Made harder by the fact that they were sharing with Owen and Noah.

“You know,” Ian said, “you can just go ahead without me.”

“No way – we’re partners right to the end!”

“I’d have thought you’d want to aim for one of the more…experienced players to end up partnered with.”

“Hell no! Most of them are assholes, let’s face it.”

“If you insist, but don’t be surprised when my lack of athletic ability puts us in last.”

Leon nudged Noah, clinging onto Owen’s back. “Has Total Drama always been this hard?”

“It may have looked like it, but not really. Might have something to do with the fact Chris let more than a hundred people run wild on the course at the same time.”

“But hey,” Owen said, “at least some of the biggest competition are doing just as bad as us.” He pointed a few pillars in front, where Heather, Zoey, Brick, even Alejandro were trying to stay above the mud, only to not have enough room. “We’re gonna have rivalries before the game even gets going.”

“Unless we want to come in last place, we’ll probably want to get a move on.”

“And I have the perfect way to go about it,” Leon grinned.

“How?”

“Watch this.” Leon lightly nudged Ian in the side to get his attention.

Behind them, Scott had started to get impatient of waiting, choosing to start barging through everyone on the pillars in order to get across. As he reached the four boys and tried to get past, Leon stuck his foot out in front of the dirt farmer, tripping him over. Fortunately, he was able to grab onto the edge of the next podium, creating something of a bridge.

“See? Now we have a way across!”

“Was playing dirty really necessary?”

“That’s how the game works, right?”

“Well…” Ian stopped himself as Leon ignored him and turned back to the Pros.

“Alright, men. After you.”

“Wait, really? We’re all against one another in this.”

“True, but I’d hate to see the Reality TV Pros fall so far behind from the beginning.”

“Okay. Thanks!” Owen, still carrying Noah, went ahead of the other pair, using Scott as a bridge across to the next pillar, Ian hesitantly following them over. As he eventually made it over and Leon came up behind, both could only hope Scott would survive after having to deal with the weight of all four of them one after the other.

…

_Thirty minutes in…_

At the midpoint of the course, there were next to no other girls in sight. At least, in front of her. And she had a feeling that she was in a good position by the fact that a number of the zipline packs were still there.

“At least I’m doing better than I thought.”

“Hey, Tomoko.” She looked at one of the other females in front of her, Jo, who was surprisingly approaching her. “You and me, partners.”

She couldn’t help but stare back at her, wondering whether or not she was joking.

“What are you waiting for? Do you _want_ to end up in last place?”

“Uh, we’ve literally spoken once. And even then, it wasn’t really talking.”

“I know, but from what you did to that punching bag last year, you seem like a strong enough player to pair up with me. Not to mention, as one of Chris’ workers, you probably know what kind of tricks he’ll be pulling.”

_There it is. Using people again._

Tomoko glanced behind her, trying to find someone else she knew to partner with. Neither Ibuki nor Kitty were anywhere to be found, Amy was already leaving as she got there, and she thought Sayaka might prefer going with Miku or Junko or someone.

She sighed. “Okay then. Why not?”

“Good.” Jo picked up one of packs and ran towards the cliff edge to assemble the zipline for them both. “Hope you can keep up.”

“Uh, so since we are working together now, I guess I may as well stop hiding it.”

“Hiding what?”

The reply wasn’t from Jo, but rather Amy who was holding her own pack in her arms.

“Oh, uh, it’s nothing important. Just team business.” _We may be friends now, but she could easily run off with the idol_. “So you’ve found your partner too?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Unfortunately? Who’d you end up with? Sammy or Jasmine?”

“Ugh,” Amy tossed a random piece of the zipline equipment behind her. “Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish it was one of them. At least Same…Sammy and I know each other.”

“Hm. Thought you’d gone back to calling her Sammy again. They’re that bad, huh?” Out of nowhere, the same piece that Amy just discarded, came back and hit Tomoko directly in the temple. “Ow!”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to make us lose?!”

“One moment.” Amy turned back to her partner, firing back while momentarily dipping back into her old valley-girl type voice. “It’s just one piece, like it’ll make that much difference!”

“Well would you at least make yourself useful and help me?”

“Oh, so _now_ you need help?”

“I’d appreciate it if you’d do _something_ – if we’re forced to be partners for this thing, we have to…co-op-er-ate.”

“This coming from you? Not to mention _you_ came asking after _me_. Desperate much?”

“You think anyone else would be willing to partner with you, either?”

“Bronze bitch.”

“Real mature.”

The argument dissipated with that, and the cheerleader turned back to her friend.

“You’re partnered with Josee?”

“Yep,” Amy sighed, popping the “p”.

“Hurry up!” This time it wasn’t just Josee calling.

“Well I’m with Jo, so I better get a move on as well.” Tomoko strapped her helmet on, giving her pocket a quick check in case the idol had fallen out.

“’Kay, see you at the finish line.”

“Good luck. You’ll be needing Nagito levels of it.”

Amy watched as Tomoko jumped onto Jo’s back, the two of them whizzing into the second stage of the game. While she would have preferred to have been with a friend, coming back into the game where most people knew her true colours by this point, there was always hope the two would be on the same team.

“I said, hurry up!”

But given the way things were at the moment, it was probably for the best that they weren’t partners…

…

_Sixty minutes in…_

“Chill out, Shuichi! We may be near the bottom right now, but we’re gonna make it into the top spot, and that’s a promise from Kaito Momota, Luminary of the--”

“Momota-kun, we’re wasting time by staying here…”

There went another pair.

“Let’s do this, bro!”

“Time to show off our wicked parkour kung-fu skills!”

There went another pair, and their godawful theme song.

“Amami-kun, do you want to form a pair with Gonta?”

“Sure thing. I guess it would be better to be with somebody I already know.”

And another pair. Great.

It was at this point, an hour into the challenge, that Shinjiro was starting to regret his application into these trials.

Outside of his classmates, there was no one he really knew that well he could ally with – Geoff and Brody, DJ and Duncan, Leon and Ian, Mondo and Chihiro all no doubt having taken off as partners, and the rules stated he couldn’t partner with any of the girls.

“Well, time for plan B: using Tomoko’s strategy.” Experienced full-on players, no hardcore strategists, maybe unlikeable. Although deep down, he’d rather have a strategist as a partner, but he couldn’t see many of those.

Shinjiro moved himself to the side, in a spot where he was unlikely to be chased up by anyone, surveying the stragglers who’d just completed part one like him.

Hagakure – not experienced. Moving on. Trent – experienced, not much of a strategist…oh, wait, he’s already paired up with Tom. Hifumi – nope. Nagito – no experience, but it doesn’t matter because he has his good luck…nope, taken again. Damn it, Hajime.

_Fantastic…who the hell am I meant to partner up with?! Wait, is that…_

On the opposite side of the checkpoint, in a similar situation to him, was someone he had not expected to be stuck in the bottom half of the group. Even a little.

_Hmm, a strategist, very experienced, unlikeable going off of past events, athletic…and we did briefly cross paths that one-time last year._

Shinjiro never thought he’d be doing this, but he approached the player who would hopefully become his partner.

…

_Seventy-five minutes in…_

And the surprises didn’t end after part one. In the introduction to the challenge, all they’d said was that it involved a paired sprint to the finish line. They’d said nothing about some of the non-contestants shooting things at them as they went past, and that didn’t even include the traps hidden underground.

Some of the pairings well-versed in Total Drama had a simpler time passing through the obstacles, but unexperienced pairs had to take things as they came. Pairs like Miku and Sayaka.

“Alright, so I was expecting something like this eventually,” Sayaka said to her new friend, “but not necessarily right at the beginning.”

“Any way you think we could tackle this?”

Both girls watched those in front of them getting stumped at various points in the course, as they themselves tried to think of a strategy.

“I think the best bet would be to retrace the routes everyone else takes. That way, in theory, there shouldn’t be any more traps there.”

“I suppose not. Unless they’re like the ones from before which just pop back up a few seconds later. I have a feeling it’s going to be like that.”

As the proof to Sayaka’s keen intuition, one of the pairs in the middle of the course went flying from a plank of wood poking out of the earth.

“Is it bad that I’m a little scared for this now?” Sayaka played with her hair nervously.

“Of course not! Anyone who’s seen it would be the same.”

“No, I mean, I almost don’t want to do this now. What if one of us accidentally steps on a trap?”

“Tell you what.” With no warning, Miku picked up the idol bridal style. “I’ll carry you over there. I think I’m fast enough to avoid most of the things in the floor.”

“But what about the people shooting the tennis balls at us?”

Both girls turned to a pair consisting of Nekomaru and Ryan as they ran past them, carrying a giant metal sheet on their side to shield themselves from the barrages of tennis balls.

“Hide behind them?”

“Sounds good to me!”

As soon as they crossed the line, some of the non-contestants aimed their tennis ball launchers at them, but the metal sheet took the brunt of it all. There was a moment where both girls panicked after an explosion sent the two guys flying to the other end of the minefield, the metal sheet landing back at the start line, but the ensuing smokescreen appeared to be enough of a cover for them to reach the end. Miku even managed to dodge a couple of additional traps along the way, impressing Sayaka.

“Where’d you learn to do that?”

“Picked it up on the job. It’s helped me survive up to now.”

“Oh, I see. Rough journalism spots then?”

Miku just shrugged, setting her partner down and both girls continuing their sprint to the finish line.

…

Naturally, Tomoko & Jo’s near lead was quashed by the arrival of the even more athletic players, those like Mukuro, Maki, the Police Cadets, Sakura…she knew it wouldn’t last until the end, but on the bright side, there was still Tomoko’s idol.

Not too far away from the minefield, there was a gazebo set up, with Chef stood underneath it. Both girls could only assume this was where exactly they handed in the idols.

“Jo, over there.” She pulled the blue idol out of her pocket. “Better drop this off.”

“Nice. Where’d you pick that up?”

“Tyres in the first part of the course.”

“That seems almost too easy.”

“Well when you think about it, wouldn’t everyone expect it to be in a more subtle place, so be more focused on those places?”

“I guess so.”

Both girls reached Chef’s tent, Tomoko handing her idol over immediately. “Here.” Surprisingly, Jo was doing the exact same thing. “Woah, you found one of the green idols?”

“Thought I’d keep it secret too. Make sure none of the others caught on.”

“Hmm…” Chef took the pair of them and put them aside, talking to either Chris or Don through a walkie-talkie.

“Well, that makes my situation even better – strong partner, one of the top placing female pairs, _and_ both the idols! We’re going to rule this game!”

“So then Chef, where exactly are our rewards? I’d rather not wait here for much longer.”

“About that…I don’t think you’ll _want_ the rewards that come with the idols.”

The two girls exchanged a look of concern. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I had no idea what exactly the idols would do, but now I know what Chris meant by them being game-changers.”

Before he could continue, Shawn and Dave also made it to the checkpoint, Dave holding another green idol. “So, what do we win?”

“I was just about to explain that to the girls here. See, the green idols split up pairings, basically meaning you’ll have to tag along with whichever pairings come along next.”

“Perfect, because here comes Izzy and Eva,” Jo said, being stopped by Chef’s grip on her hood.

“Not so fast. That only applies to Shawn and Dave. Because you two also found the blue idol, that means the pairs you’ll be tagging along with, will be pairings of the other gender.”

Both girls stared, their mouths falling open – Tomoko out of surprise, Jo out of disbelief.

“Great. And I just got Lightning to stop calling me a dude.”

“Better hope you aren’t partnered with him.”

“Fukuhara-chan! What a coincidence!”

Behind the four people at the checkpoint, Kokichi and Kiibo, no doubt another pairing, had surprisingly appeared.

“Ouma-kun and Kiibo-kun? How did you two end up so high up in the rankings?”

“Because unlike most of the jocks, we are _smart_.”

“Uh, okay, just leaving it at that then. Well, I guess I’m joining you two.”

“Why?”

“Blue idol.”

“ _Just leaving it at that then_ ,” Kokichi returned. “Okay, let’s go!”

_I may have lost the stronger partner, but I’m with people who are closer to friends now_.

“Alright,” Jo looked behind her. “Who’s coming next? Oh…”

Brick, and Lightning.

“Alright, Zombie Boy, this one’s on you. They’re all yours.”

“Hold on,” this time, Chef grabbed Shawn’s jacket. “The girls got here first, so they leave first.”

“Ugh.” Jo groaned. “Here we go again.”

<p></p>

All the way at the end of the mile-long sprint, after all the landmines, tennis ball launchers and so on, Don waited at the finish line, ready to welcome each pair and sort them into their teams. Behind the other host were two rows of mats, six blue and six pink, each one with a number 1 to 6 on it. Don himself had a tablet in his hand, with the names of all the players in case one slipped his memory.

“Whoo! We made it!”

Don looked up from the tablet upon hearing a loud female voice approaching the end. Once they made it, Don flashed them both his usual smile.

“Sanders, MacArthur, congratulations! Not only are you the first female pairing to reach the finish line, but the first _overall_ pairing to get here!”

“Really? _First_?”

“Told you so!”

“Both of you, go and stand behind the pink number 1. Also, because you’re the first members of your team, one of you has to take on the role of team leader. Who’s it going to be?”

MacArthur immediately turned to Sanders. “This one’s on you, partner!”

“You sure?”

“Of course! After everything you pulled off in the Race, you earned it!”

“Well, uh, okay then. Don, I’ll be the leader of our team!”

“Perfect! And from the looks of things, here come the rest of your teammates!”

“All of them?”

“Yep. Sakura and Hina, Sky and Maki, Izzy and Eva, Peko and Mukuro, go and join the Police Cadets behind the pink number 1!”

The Cadets were amazed by the rest of their team. “Am I dreaming, or did we end up with eight of the strongest females in both Total Drama _and_ Hope’s Peak?”

“Oh, you know we did! We are totally going to win this thing!”

The next pair to arrive were male.

“Kaito and Shuichi, you may not have come in first, but you _are_ the first guys’ pairing to show up. Congratulations. Go stand behind the blue number 1, and decide on which one of you will be team captain.”

Shuichi looked over at Kaito. “You know more about this show than I do.”

“Well, all these leadership choices have been easy so far.”

A few minutes passed until the rest of the first-place teams were filled, when the next two female pairings showed up.

“Yes! We did it, Miku-san! So, uh, do you want to lead the team?”

“Hate to ruin your fun, but me and Amy got here before you. And _I’ll_ be leading the team.”

“No, we made it before _you_!”

“Don’t wanna the bitch again, but I think we made it a fraction of a second before you two.”

“Alright, enough!” The four girls shut up.

“Since all four of you can’t agree on a winner, I guess it falls to me to decide the leaders of your team.”

Josee smirked and flicked her ponytail, waiting expectantly for Don’s verdict.

“Sayaka, Miku, congratulations!”

“What?”

“What?!”

“Hey, like Kitty said, it’s called karma. Have fun taking orders from the newbie.” A smug grin of satisfaction spread over Don’s face. “Go stand behind the pink number 2. Oh, here come more players!”

Another four-way tie – Duncan & DJ, Geoff & Brody.

“Okay, that was definitely a tie. All four of you better make up your mind about the leader, then go stand behind the blue number 2. Ah, Leon and Ian, hurry up and join them!”

“Normally I’d be more than happy to take on the role but…” Geoff threw an arm over DJ. “I nominate the D man over here!”

“What? Why me?”

“Why not?”

“You three have played the game way better than I have. Maybe one of you should do it.”

“Come on, DJ. You were one of the strongest players back in the day, despite everything. What better time and place to prove it?”

DJ didn’t seem very certain about taking the responsibility, but eventually gave in. “Alright. Fine. If you say so.”

And the second guys team was about to get its next players with the two trios approaching.

“Guess you really are desperate to be my partner; we just can’t seem to shake one another.”

“Hm. I never took you for the trash-talking type.”

“Well, when on Total Drama…”

“It doesn’t matter anyway, as it looks like we’re going to end up on the same team anyway.”

A loud explosion from earlier in the course stopped the six of them in their tracks, them and everyone behind them turning in the direction of the explosion.

“Sha-what?”

“What the hell?”

“Did that come from the minefield?”

Kokichi nudged Tomoko and Kiibo as the other trio stared at the smoke cloud with intrigue. “Why are we still here? Let’s get to the finish!”

The three of them turned around back to the finish line. “Kokichi, Kiibo, Tomoko, go stand behind the blue number 2 – DJ’s team.”

Needless to say, the other six members of their team were confused as to why they came in a three, and why Tomoko was one of them.

“Am I missing something? Aren’t you supposed to be clearing up the remnants of that explosion?”

“No, Duncan. I’m on your team.”

“But I thought the teams couldn’t be co-ed. Wait, don’t tell me…”

“The idols,” the three chorused at the same time.

“Alright, that makes sense. But hey, at least it wasn’t Teruteru who got it.”

“Or Chabashira-chan,” Kokichi whispered to his partners.

“Woah, dude!” Brody took the group off-topic and pointed towards the air, where what looked like a large metal sheet – to be specific, the same one used before – was flying through the air, leaving a trail of smoke behind it, which was apparently heading directly for Jo, Brick and Lightning.

“Ooh, that’s gonna hurt…”

Despite the athletic ability the other trio had, they weren’t fast enough to outrun the incoming obstacle, being knocked down inches away from the finish line by a smoky blur of red, pink and grey.

Nobody moved from their mat, completely surprised as to what had just happened, forced to wonder whether or not the three of them had died from the impact.

The three athletic players weren’t able to pull themselves out of the metal before the two people responsible for the explosion, and the remaining members of the second guys’ team were less surprised by who it actually was.

“Shinjiro! You doin’ okay?”

“HeroAca…never fails.”

“Of course…”

“Uh, well then. Guess Lightning, Brick and Jo are on team three. In the meantime, while we get this mess cleared up, Shinjiro and Jacques, go stand behind the blue number 2.”

“Shinjiro and who now?”

…

Fair to say, not every player was happy with everyone on their team, but then again, has anyone ever been in the history of Total Drama?

The rest of the first challenge went off without any more astronomical explosions, but the result of the one that did happen, wasn’t the best. Undoubtedly, Shinjiro was welcomed quickly enough since he was friends with the first six, but the same couldn’t be said for Jacques. And if that was the case for the guys, naturally, his partner wasn’t fairing any better. Josee and Amy already hated one another, then factor in other team members like Kitty, Bridgette and Leshawna…

“Well, these teams aren’t at all what I expected…for the most part. But regardless, what’s done is done. Now you have your teams and captains, it’s time to decide on your team names! Those who ended up in last place have more time to think about it, but as for our first two teams, I hope you have something prepared!”

“I got it!” Kaito loudly declared to the rest of the group, before anyone else could contribute an idea. “We’ll be called Team Rocket! Heh, get it?”

“No, no, no, no, absolutely **NO**!” Chris immediately stopped Kaito in his tracks. “There’s enough copyright lawsuits against me and the show, after all the stunts _Mr. Anime Fanatic_ managed to pull off in the last few years!”

“Uh, meaning?”

“You made your classmates sit through that Kill la Kill show on national television. And then there was AssClass…”

“Fair enough.”

Kaito sighed. “Uh, fine. How about…Team…Comet?”

Chris grinned. “Works for me. Ladies? Any ideas?”

Clearly, the first-place girls had no ideas, all muttering to one another in confusion, until Sanders cleared her throat. “Chris, from here on, we’ll be known as the Awesome Athletes!”

“Very nice! Team DJ, you’re up.”

“Right,” Duncan got the attention of his teammates, “although it makes me wanna hurl, I think Shinjiro’s our best bet for team names. But if it has to be an anime reference, nothing embarrassing, especially anything from _that show_ – it’s bad enough you insisted on keeping your username as SplendidNakedOfficer.”

“Come on, man, not in front of those three.” Shinjiro pointed to the three newcomers, who had already started judging him. “But if you insist…I guess The Huntsmen sounds cool.”

“What’s that a reference to?”

“It’ll probably come up again later, so it can wait.”

“Team Miku?”

As the team leader opened her mouth to respond, Josee interjected. “Golden Girls.”

“Because that worked so well with Team Victory,” Leshawna muttered to Bridgette.

“Team Lightning…wait, don’t tell me that’s the team name.”

“Lightning Squad!”

“Sure…I’m kind of mad at myself for not seeing that coming. Team Komaru?”

She exchanged a quick look with her partner, Toko, who gave her a rare smile. “The Most Dangerous Sisters!”

“Team Alejandro.”

Following eager nodding from his teammates, “The Hammerheads.”

“Team Jasmine?”

“This may be asking for trouble after World Tour, but our team are the Neo Amazons.”

“Team Imposter?”

“Are you sure about this?” He muttered to his teammates, almost all of whom grinned and nodded eagerly. “Alright then. I may regret this, but our team voted for Team Victory 2.0.” There were lots of groans and sounds of worry from the rest of the teams.

“Team Tenko.”

“Tch…Tenko hates to have to give in to Angie-san’s preaching, but Tenko’s team wishes to be known as…” she visibly cringed at having to say the name, “Atua’s Followers.”

“Team Ezekiel! Huh, never thought I’d say that.”

“Hows about The Immortals?”

“I dunno, it’s your team, dude. And finally, Team Beth. Again, never thought I’d say that.”

“Uh, I don’t know about our team name…” Beth said to her team.

“Neither am I, but nobody else had any ideas.”

“Alright then,” she turned back to the hosts. “We are Victorious Secret.”

“Okay then, now all twelve teams are formed and named, better start dishing out the teams’ rewards – your living quarters for the next ten weeks! Team Comet and the Awesome Athletes, for coming in first place, you guys will get to stay in luxury trailers! Comes with private mobile showers, and an AC unit! Huntsmen and Golden Girls, you win the second place living quarters – while they may look like the basic cabins, they’re actually a lot bigger, fitted with a number of different features, which I’m sure you’ll find yourselves in due time. And speaking of which, Lightning Squad and Most Dangerous Sisters, you guys _do_ get the bog-standard cabins. I don’t think they need much explanation.

“Fourth place – Hammerheads and Neo Amazons – you guys get Team Kinosewak’s old treehouse, still perfectly intact after the events of season six. Fifth place teams Victory 2.0 and Atua’s Followers, you guys win, if you can even call it that, the newly rebuilt wizards’ tower. Hopefully this time it shouldn’t collapse at the slightest amount of force. As for our last place teams…well, hope you like tents.

“Alright, that’s about it for today, so head to your new living quarters and get to know your teammates!”

* * *

 

_The Immortals and Victorious Secret_

“Nuh uh, I ain’t doing this!”

Having finished the first challenge in joint last place, Chris wasn’t joking about the tents. And they weren’t even tents for the whole team, either. Ten large-ish tents had been thrown onto them, each with only enough room for one pair and any bags they may have had. And fair to say, a fair number of players in those teams weren’t happy.

“The cabins and the toxic waste were bad enough, but I draw the line at…this!”

“You would think they could put the first-place team in the so-called “spa hotel”, so at the very least we’d have a proper roof over our heads.”

“Well if they did that, where would they put the non-contestants?”

“They could have just not fuckin’ showed up!”

“But Chris said he needed everyone here for some reason. Wonder why?”

As the complaints continued, Ezekiel looked around, noting the absence of one of his teammates. “Hey, where’d B get to, eh?”

On cue, B emerged from the woods back to the clearing, with a large amount of wood in his arms, at the same time reaching for one of the tools in his jacket.

“B, I know this is your thing, but shouldn’t we be putting our tents together about now?”

As expected, B didn’t answer, instead drawing up a rough sketch of the group’s campsite.

“Yeah, we just said we were doing that, so why do you need all the wood?”

Beth managed to piece things together. “Oh, I get it! B wants to make another shelter for our tents to go under!”

“Great idea! This way it should be less of a problem when the weather gets bad.”

“On that note,” Max pointed into the air, dark clouds already forming.

The second team captain immediately took over. “Ellody, Mary and Miu are obviously the best choices for constructing this, so you three help out B. Everyone else, just chip in where you can!”

With that, most of both teams grabbed tools and building materials and got to work.

…

_Lightning Squad_

“Alright then, losers.” All eleven members of the team stood in the middle of their cabin, with all their bags tossed randomly into a pile in the corner. Jo was stood up on a stool in front of them all. “In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s eleven of us, and only ten beds.”

“Hold up!” Lightning interjected. “I’m the leader of this team, _Lightning_ should be up there!”

“Whatever. Anyway, given most of you, there’s going to be no easy way to decide who doesn’t get a bed.”

“Meaning what, exactly?”

Jo kicked the stool aside. “What does it sound like? We fight, and the loser has to sleep on the floor.”

The guys all exchanged differing looks of worry, confusion and consideration, until Fuyuhiko walked away.

“You do whatever you want,” he dropped his bag onto a lower bunk, “but I want out.”

“I agree,” Nagito had already snagged a separate lower bunk and was sat atop it reading a book. “As helpful my luck can be, I’m no fighter.”

“I dunno about the rest of you, but I’m in.” Scott smirked.

“Yeah, bring it on!” Tyler was on board too.

“Whatever, it’s your funeral.” Hajime climbed the ladder to the bunk above Nagito.

“Yeah, I don’t really--”

“Nonsense!” Nekomaru grabbed Ryan by the arm before he could walk off. “This is a prime opportunity to show off your FIGHTING SPIRIT!”

“Watch your back, Jo,” Lightning cracked his knuckles, “’cause the Lightning’s about to strike!”

…

_The Huntsmen_

“So Duncan, who lost?”

“Dunno, we’re not there yet.”

With Geoff, Brody, Duncan and DJ already having a tight bond before the Trials even started, they’d already integrated into their team well enough. Hell, the first thing they decided to do after putting their things away was bet on the antics of the Lightning Squad. While they all stuck together, the other seven team members chose to keep to their own partnerships.

“Fukuhara-chan, you know you love me?”

“Do I?”

“Can I have the top bunk?”

“Sure, go ahead. I don’t care anyway.”

“Wait, what about me?” Kiibo clocked into the similar lack of an eleventh bed in their cabin. “Was Chris so robophobic as to not even give me a bed?!”

“Chill out, Kiibo.” Leon, who was already making himself comfortable on his bunk above Ian, pointed to the back of the cabin. “Yours is over there, by the window. It’s got an outlet and everything.”

“Don’t be surprised if I feel like trading with you later on,” Ian added. “Nice spot.”

“Maybe, but does your bed have a slot for your tablet?” The anime nerd had already plugged himself in and was chilling on his bottom bunk. Sure enough, he’d slotted his tablet into the frame of his bunk, reclining against the other end and watching some show nobody cared to ask about. “By the way, what’s the word on the Squad?”

“Oh, it’s over!”

“So who lost?”

“Who do you think?”

“It was Tyler, wasn’t it?”

“Yep.” Duncan turned to the Surfer Dudes, stood in the cabin’s mini-kitchen area. “Geoff! Pay up!”

“Darn it.” He tossed ten dollars onto the table. “I had my money on Kazuichi, right Brody?”

The other surfer didn’t reply, having walked towards Shinjiro’s bunk, the other momentarily removing his headphones. “You need something?”

“Where’d Jacques get to?”

“Outside with Josee. Why?”

At that moment, said figure skater came back through the door to the cabin, bag still in hand.

“Never mind.”

With the exception of Shinjiro, who had returned to his show, all other eyes in the cabin were now on Jacques, with looks of either neutrality or contempt.

“What?”

Brody sighed. “Listen up, dancer dude. We may not have got on during the Race, and even though I can’t really speak for the rest of the team, Geoff and I are willing to put that aside, and work together as teammates this time. If you _have_ to sabotage other players and do what you did during the Race, whatever, I won’t be getting involved. Just make sure you don’t bring everyone else down with you.”

“I agree.” DJ came forward. “I’ve heard about what you’ve done last season, and based on that, you should count yourself lucky we’re even willing to be on a team with you.”

“I’m not,” Duncan interjected.

“But only if you’re willing to do the same thing back.”

The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

“Technically speaking,” Kokichi spoke up, “it’s Shinjiro-chan’s fault that Jackie-chan got on the team in the first place.”

“Jackie…chan?”

“So we cool or not, man?” DJ offered a hand.

Having not said a thing the entire time, Jacques set his bag to the side and reciprocated DJ’s peace offering. “Sure. So long as we don’t lose, I think we’ll get along just fine.”

“Doubt it,” Leon muttered.

“Well this is going…better than I’d hoped. I mean, you should see the girls right now! Can’t help but feel bad for Bridge though.”

“True. I kinda miss the Killer Bass days.”

All the non-veterans exchanged looks of confusion.

“What’s up with the girls?”

…

_Golden Girls_

There was much deliberation as to whether the guys check out the drama in the girls’ side of the cabins, and they probably made the right call by sending their own girl in their place. Even with the door and window shut, there was still a lot of screeching and yelling coming from inside. And with two (former?) villains as part of the team, it was understandable.

“Oh, you don’t want to go in there.” Newest member Miku, too terrified to have any part of the drama, remained sat outside on top of her suitcase.

“I know, but the guys set me up to it. You know, what with them not being able to do it themselves without Chabashira-san breaking down the wall.”

“No, this is another level.”

“How bad _is_ it in there?”

On cue, a piece of silver went flying through the closed window. Both girls inspected the item, realising it was a medal.

“Right…this is gonna be fun.”

Tomoko gave the door to the Golden Girls’ side of the cabin a light push, and was half-expecting what lay on the other side. Just not at the same level.

Like the guys’ side, there was a mini kitchen and seating area in the front corner, where Sayaka and Kaede were awkwardly sat, each with a bottle of water and trying to talk with one another over the noise. Said noise was caused by a full-on brawl between old rivals Josee & Kitty, which apparently started out verbal before transitioning into chokeholds and slapping. In the meantime, Amy & Leshawna had somehow got into their own war of words, not quite on _Leshawna vs Heather_ levels, but teetering on the edge. Ibuki and Bridgette made an effort to break the two duos apart, while Sierra lay on her bunk livestreaming the whole thing to one of her blogs.

A bed was already broken, suitcases tipped open, and what she swore was a drop of blood staining the carpet…

As quickly as she’d got her look into the team, Tomoko backed away and returned to her own, still wide-eyed as she closed the door behind her.

“So, how’d it go?”

“Head to Sierra’s blog and see for yourself. And here I thought the whole “guys are family, girls are cutthroat” thing was a load of crap.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Teams will be listed in the behind-the-scenes work.


	15. Trick and Treat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A scavenger hunt for candies in the woods takes a dark turn...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus, 8000+ words and 25 pages...  
> Fair warning for future challenge chapters - a few teams will probably be glanced over during the challenges, and some of the characters may end up being kind of OOC.

Over the next two days after moving into their cabin, the girls had already taken to sprucing up their respective bunkbeds in different ways – an act mainly brought about after Miku made her feuding allies aware of the broken window. Like their male counterparts, they opted to bunk based on their pairings, despite protest from Amy and Josee. These protests only amped up when the decorating started – Amy always came close to getting different colours of neon spray paint in Josee’s area, damaging the figure skater’s more intricately done white set-up. Although they’d both managed to finish up after day one, the remaining eight were still going until their first big challenge. Both former villains didn’t hesitate to criticise the others’ choices, although they did note Amy’s jabs were more playful and light-hearted.

“Gotta admit, Amy,” Bridgette was sat at the bed across from the cheerleader, “I didn’t take you for the type of person who liked that sort of thing.” She herself had merely added a folded aqua fleece blanket to the bottom of her bed.

Amy’s walls were now a mixture of pink, purple and blue, a choice made by Ibuki when she couldn’t make up her mind. “Yeah, well, there _is_ more character to me than Pahkitew Island Amy.”

“That implies you had character to begin with.” At that, Amy firmly kicked the bottom of Josee’s mattress.

“Well it’s interesting, I’ll give you that much.”

“Ibuki hates this!” Said musician groaned aloud, leaning over the ladder to her and Kitty’s bunkbed and letting a pillow fall to the floor.

“For the last two days, you were more excited than most for this experience. What happened?”

“Kitty, don’t you know what day it is? It’s Halloween! Do you have any idea how much we’re missing out on right now?”

“What are you, five?” Josee looked over at her. “How childish can you be to get so worked up over something as simple as that?”

“Better question,” Amy interjected, “why does Sierra insist on walking around in her bikini for the day?”

All heads in the cabin turned to Sierra, still knelt on her duvet and tacking numerous pictures of Cody onto her wall, who was indeed in her yellow/green bikini. Realising the new attention aimed at her, she turned to her teammates.

“Uh, have you read _anything_ in the Total Drama online fanbase?”

The other nine stared at her in confusion.

“The first ever challenge for Total Drama was the cliff dive, and everywhere you look in the Internet community, it’s the same thing. _Duh_.”

The confusion didn’t let up.

Sierra groaned, rubbing her forehead. “It’s a fanfiction thing. In every single rewrite, reworking or recast of a season of Total Drama, they always start with the cliff dive challenge.”

“Sure, but why not throw something on over the top of the bikini? If anything it’s kind of disconcerting.”

“Come on, we’re all girls in here.” Sierra went back to her work.

“I’m not sure he’ll do that, though,” Bridgette said. “It’s Halloween, so Chris might throw in an early horror challenge.”

“I guess it’s only a matter of when Chris calls it.”

Almost as thought she’d predicted it, static sounded distantly over the loudspeaker. _“Attention players! Please make your way to the main meeting area for your first official challenge during these Trials! Oh, and Sierra? Unless it’s a Halloween costume, you might wanna get changed out of your bikini.”_

“Oh.” A couple of new, smug looks were cast in Sierra’s direction when she was proven wrong. “Well, I mean, a guess based on fanfiction doesn’t count for anything really.”

…

After five minutes of getting changed, Sierra emerged from the Golden Girls’ cabin, allowing Chris to finally get started.

“Now that everyone’s here, it’s time to introduce your first challenge! As some of you may have noticed, today is October 31st, or Halloween. So, today’s challenge is perfectly fitting for today – a brand new challenge which I like to call _Trick and Treat_!”

“Told you.”

“Here’s how the challenge works. Each team will be split into two groups – Tricksters and Treaters. Hidden throughout the island will be 30 candies in each teams’ colours. It’ll be the Treaters’ job to search the island and find these candies. But here’s the catch – to make things interesting, it’ll be done in total darkness, with only a flashlight to light your way, just like in any good horror game! Also, every Treater will be fitted with one of these.” Chris held up a small badge with a red LED light on it. “This will keep track of the amount of noise you guys make during the challenge. That is where the Tricksters come in.

“It’ll be your job to scare off the Treaters on the eleven other teams. This can be done in any way you want to, but anything you come up with has to be run past Don, Chef and myself first, to make sure two of the same scare aren’t set up right next to one another. To eliminate another player, all you have to do is get them to scream loud enough to trigger the alarm in their badge. This can be done through methods as large as constructing giant props, to something as simple as jumping out from behind a tree. Furthermore, any candy they may be carrying won’t count. Once the challenge is over, teams will be ranked based on the number of candies they’ve collected over the number of players left at the end.”

“On that note,” Cody raised a hand, “with twelve teams and no eliminations, how does “ranking” work?”

Chris facepalmed. “Dang it! I knew I forgot something. Right, I guess there’s no better time. After each challenge, each team will be awarded a certain number of points depending on their performance. The winners get 15 points, second-place get 12, third get 10, and the remaining teams work down from nine points to only one. Some challenges will earn the winners rewards, and there will be more than a few differences to the norm: no bonfires, no immunity idols, no eliminations. BUT, at the end of the ten weeks, the male and female teams with the most points will be the all-stars in our final season!”

At the mention of the final season, the teams finally perked up.

“Alrighty then, with all that finally out of the way, you have until sunset – 5:30pm – to split up into Tricksters and Treaters and come up with your scares. To keep things fair, all the Treaters teams needs to have five players, and yes, that means you guys too, Hammerheads. Snap to it, players!”

* * *

 

 _Tricksters:  
__Team Comet – Mondo, Chihiro, Noah, Mickey, Jay, Ryoma_  
_Awesome Athletes – Sakura, MacArthur, Maki, Izzy, Mukuro_  
_The Huntsmen – Duncan, Brody, Ian, Kiibo, Kokichi, Jacques_  
_Golden Girls – Sayaka, Josee, Leshawna, Ibuki, Kitty_  
_Lightning Squad – Lightning, Nekomaru, Fuyuhiko, Scott, Hajime, Nagito_  
_Most Dangerous Sisters – Toko, Scarlett, Junko, Mikan, Celeste_  
_Hammerheads – Alejandro, Cody, Mike, Rodney, Tom, Devin, Junior_  
_Neo Amazons – Stephanie, Heather, Crimson, Hiyoko, Carrie_  
_Team Victory 2.0 – Imposter, Lorenzo, Chet, Justin, Sam, Dave_  
_Atua’s Followers – Zoey, Dawn, Miles, Angie, Tammy_  
_The Immortals – Ezekiel, Korekiyo, Ennui, Gundam, Teruteru_  
_Victorious Secret – Miu, Tsumugi, Ellody, Mary, Sugar_

Treaters:  
Team Comet – Kaito, Shuichi, Owen, Shawn, Makoto  
_Awesome Athletes – Sanders, Hina, Sky, Peko, Eva_  
_The Huntsmen – DJ, Geoff, Leon, Tomoko, Shinjiro_  
_Golden Girls – Miku, Amy, Bridgette, Kaede, Sierra_  
_Lightning Squad – Brick, Jo, Ryan, Kazuichi, Tyler_  
_Most Dangerous Sisters – Komaru, Jen, Dakota, Chiaki, Sonia_  
_Hammerheads – Gonta, Rantaro, Cameron, Topher, Trent_  
_Neo Amazons – Jasmine, Sammy, Kirumi, Mahiru, Ella_  
_Team Victory 2.0 – Ryota, Harold, Rock, Spud, Hagakure_  
_Atua’s Followers – Tenko, Himiko, Laurie, Akane, Staci_  
_The Immortals – Max, Beardo, Leonard, B, Hifumi_  
_Victorious Secret – Beth, Lindsay, Katie, Sadie, Anne Maria_

* * *

 

_The Huntsmen_

Despite having reached their decision long ago on how to split the team, the leader was far from happy.

“Why do I have to be on the Treaters team?! Have you guys forgotten what happened in season one? _And_ two?!”

“You’re supposed to be our team leader, _non_?” Frankly, the complaining was getting on Jacques’ nerves. “So act like it.”

“He’s right. Kinda.” Geoff threw an arm over DJ’s shoulders. “Getting over your fears is the best way for you to prove yourself as leader!”

“Is it? I mean, if this is what our team’s comin’ up with…”

DJ pointed at where Duncan, Kiibo and Kokichi were starting to brainstorm their scare tactics.

“The chainsaw-wielding psycho killer is a classic, and a tried-and-tested TDI success.”

“A little cliched, but why not? Hey, did you know Momota-chan’s scared of ghosts?”

“All you may need to do is send Kokichi himself out there. We’ll win easily.”

Seeing them, Geoff didn’t disagree with his friend. “But those scares aren’t meant for you, man! And all the others are probably putting the scariest people on the Treat team so they’ll be less likely to scream, meaning they can’t come up with any scares of their own!”

“But if we run into one during the challenge?! Doesn’t that make being eliminated _more_ pathetic?”

“Pathetic being the key word here.”

“Dude, you’re not helping!”

…

_Most Dangerous Sisters_

“Hmm…scaring others isn’t really a forte for most of us…any ideas?”

Most of the girls shook their heads, until Celeste giggled.

“My, aren’t we all taking this a little too seriously? We could secure victory in a far simpler manner. Enoshima-san, how far exactly does your analytical prowess extend?”

“Uhh…planning, reading expressions, learning stuff. Why?”

“I was curious as to whether or not you would have the mental capability to _learn_ who is on which team for this challenge.”

“Celeste, where are you going with this?”

“We don’t need to waste valuable time constructing elaborate sets or realistic props. All we must do is play to our opponent’s psychological woes.”

Scarlett appeared to be clocking into her thinking. “I think I understand. We play to the specific fears of each person on the Treat teams, correct?”

“Precisely.”

“But how are we supposed to even know everyone’s specific fears?”

“No worries. I’m certain that the likes of Scarlett and Junko will be able to deduce those facts easily enough.” Celeste’s gentle smile contorted into a more sly grin.

…

_Immortals_

Many of the teams figured out their scare ideas quickly enough, but the Immortals team chose to take more of an on-the-fly approach. While the others got to work either in the mess hall or in the privacy of their cabins, Korekiyo led his team to a rather large building that was yet to be introduced to the players.

“What’re we doin’ up here, eh?”

The team made their way through the rather colourful bottom floor towards a ladder propped in the corner. A trap door directly above led to something of an attic filled with boxes.

“There is something up here that will perhaps prove useful for today. Bear with me a moment while I search for it.”

As the rest of his team came up behind him, Korekiyo scanned through the writing on the boxes, eventually crouching in front of one in the corner and prying the lid open.

“What’s all that?”

“A number of relics not unlike those I have acquired over the years. Yet how exactly they successfully found their way over here escapes me.”

“No doubt black magic exists within these items,” as Leonard said as much, Beardo made a ghost noise behind them all.

“We can use these to our advantage. Although our team of people participating in the challenge may not last very long, our chances of victory will increase if we place greater emphasis on eliminating the others.”

“I agree.” Ennui carefully removed a mask from the crate. “These seem like they’ll do the trick.”

“Ookay then,” Ezekiel dropped something back into the box. “Clearly you two and Gundam know the most about this sorta thing, so I’ll leave ya to it.”

* * *

 

At 5:30, all the Tricksters were called into the woods to set up their respective scares, the non-contestants lending a hand where needed. While waiting, Chef had set up a barbeque for dinner, the remaining Treat players sat nearby. Fair to say, they were somewhat unnerved by a number of the props people were walking past with.

Two of the teams were spotted with body bag type things, another with a small box of red packets, all the rest were impossible to figure out what they were exactly. No doubt being forced to do the challenge in the dark would only make it look worse than it actually was.

“If they wanted to freak us out before we even get started, they’re all doing a good job, huh?”

Most of the other players nodded in agreement with Trent.

At the same time, Chris and Don arrived carrying a series of shoeboxes, all of which were dropped onto one of the logs being sat on. A closer look revealed the sound detecting badges were in one, while another contained flashlights, and plastic buckets in the shape of pumpkins in the last one, coloured for each of the teams.

“Okay teams, it’s about time we get this challenge started! Everyone grab a badge and a bucket in your team colours. Two flashlights and two buckets per team.”

Once everyone had what they needed, Chris addressed them.

“All the scares are set up in the woods now – all you guys do now is try and survive in there! Remember, if your badge starts buzzing, you’re out and have to make your way back here, leaving your candy behind. If you survive until the end – which will be announced with this…” on cue, Chris blew his airhorn into a megaphone, causing ringing in the ears of those closest to him, “then your candy will be counted for your team. Everyone ready?”

Although most people nodded, a few weren’t anywhere as eager.

“Go!”

The airhorn sounded again, and the players sprinted into the woods.

…

_Team Comet_

“Momota-kun, don’t you think we should be splitting up instead of staying as a group?”

“It’s fine, Naegi!”

“I dunno. All it takes is one over-the-top scare and we’ll all be out at once.”

“It’s only been five minutes – no way anyone’s gonna sprout anything that bad right off the bat.”

As the team walked along led by Kaito’s blind optimism, Kokichi, hidden in the trees above them, looked to Kiibo with a smirk. “Cue the soccer ball.”

With a nod, Kiibo dropped the prop (a soccer ball with a white sheet draped over it), letting it hang from one of the branches directly in Kaito’s line of sight.

“Not to mention if we split up, there’ll be a greater chance of us finding candy.”

“Jeez, why’d our colour have to be dark pur--”

“GYYAAAAHHHHHHH!!”

The other four boys spun to face Kaito at the sound of both his out of character scream and the annoying buzzing coming from his badge. While three of them watched in disbelief as their leader ran for the hills, abandoning his empty bucket and flashlight, Shuichi noticed the fake ghost above them – something which didn’t faze the rest of them in the slightest.

The detective sighed. “So, should we split up _now_?”

…

_Most Dangerous Sisters_

“Alright, remember if you think you’re about to get eliminated, drop the candies and it’ll still count.”

Komaru had been quick to take up the mark of leader during this challenge for her half of the team. She herself wasn’t as easy to scare as she may have been a few years ago, and the same could be said for Sonia & Dakota. Jen was quite the opposite and Chiaki was somewhere in the middle.

“How many do we have so far?”

Chiaki glanced into the bucket. “Um, nine.”

“Good start! No doubt if someone gets offed, one of us will be able to go back and pick up theirs later. Since our colour’s white, they’ll likely be easier for us to find.”

“So, you think it would be easier if we stick together?”

“I feel this is the best course of action, too. Those who are less easy to scare can support the others.”

“Exactly.” Komaru put her hand out. “Now, let’s go and win this!”

The other four put their hands on top of their captain’s. “Yeah!”

“Well, well…”

At the sudden sound of Junko’s voice, Jen pulled her hand out of the pile and let out a high-pitched yelp, but was able to cover it up before the badge detected it.

“Everyone’s still in the game, I see.”

“Shouldn’t you be working on eliminating the other players right now?”

“Just thought I’d let you know who we decided to target.”

“Target?”

“Hello~? Celes-san’s psychological tactics?”

…

_Lightning Squad_

The base of Celes and Scarlett’s plan involved splitting the team apart to begin with. Jo had already left to go solo, leaving only the boys behind. Ryan & Kazuichi would be one group as they would likely scare themselves later on, putting the other two (Brick & Tyler) on the girls’ radar. All it took was a “borrowed” dummy from another team to send them running, allowing Scarlett to pursue Brick and Tyler.

There was a certain trick that Scarlett had up her sleeve for the next part, copied from Revenge of the Island, when Cameron had managed to recalibrate his watch in order to send out an electrical wave capable of disabling two shock collars. Scarlett had a similar plan, albeit using some of the bountiful technology on the island rather than a watch.

Once the pair came into view, Scarlett activated her makeshift device, hid herself behind a large tree, and waited for the effects to take place.

“Well, we’re probably in trouble now.”

“How, exactly?”

“You’ve got most of our candy, right?”

“So?” Tyler turned to face him. “Are you saying I’m the most easily scared out of all of us? Because clearly you don’t know enough about Kazuichi!”

“N-no, of course not! But now we’re all separated, _if_ we both end up scaring ourselves out, we’ve lost about fifteen candies!”

“Oh. Well, yeah, that’s bad. But no need to worry, I live to the extreme! It takes a lot to scare me!” Tyler gave his teammate a thumbs up, casually trying to forget the embarrassment of the Phobia Factor challenge and that one nightmare during the Awake-a-Thon.

Out of nowhere, Brick’s flashlight began to flicker, the power threatening to shut off.

“Wh-what the heck? I thought the batteries were full!”

“Chill out, man. They _are_ full. Prolly someone out to scare us.”

“B-but if the lights go out then it’ll all be d-d…dark…”

The flashlight chose that exact moment to stop working all together, prompting Brick to release a loud scream, the darkness briefly lit up red thanks to the alert on his badge.

“Brick, get a grip! It’s just the dark!” Tyler didn’t get a reply, but was instead met with friction by his leg.

“Uh, Brick? I get you’re scared of the dark, but can you get off me?” No reply again. “Come on, man, you’re gonna get your pee on my shoes!”

Tyler shuffled around in the darkness for a moment, only to be constantly met with more things he just assumed were plants rubbing against his legs, until he felt the flashlight under his foot.

“Oh, finally!” He picked it up, his hand brushing against more plants as he did so. He noted the plants were far softer than most, but just put that much down to the fact that everything on the island was fake.

He flicked the switch on the flashlight, the area around him lighting up. “I dunno why Brick was so worried, it works just--”

Tyler stopped mid-sentence, completely frozen in fear, when he saw the “plants” that he’d been rubbing against all this time.

Surrounding him from all directions weren’t plants at all, but what must have been a hundred chickens.

Scarlett couldn’t help but burst into an incredible fit of borderline maniacal laughter as Tyler ran screaming louder than Brick, the evil genius programming her robotic chickens to chase after him all the way back to the clearing.

“Oh evil, how I’ve missed you.”

…

_Team Victory 2.0_

“Yes! Got another one! How many now?”

“Ten. Awesome!”

“And we’ve barely run into any scares at all!”

“Minus that one person who jumped out from behind a tree and outed Hiro.”

Quite pathetically, Hagakure was eliminated less than two minutes from the beginning, by Crimson. And all she did was emerge from behind a tree without a word.

“Oh, wait.” Rock reached an arm into the roots of a tree next to them. “Eleven! We’ve got eleven!”

“Nice,” Spud held out the bucket for his buddy to drop the candy into. Despite appearances, Team Victory 2.0 went in with an admittedly well-thought-out plan – leave all the candy with Spud due to his delayed reactions. Risky, but well-thought-out.

“We should keep moving,” Ryota said. “If we stick around much longer, a scare could pop up out of nowhere.”

“Like this?” Harold picked up a traditional-looking mask that had been hidden behind a rock.

“Exactly like that.”

The other boys took the cue and headed back the way they came, only for something to drop down in front of them. Something that looked like it had crawled from the depths of hell itself.

The flashlight brought the features of the thing into full view. While it was clearly a dummy, this fact was overshadowed by the black clothing dripping in blood, and the masks that looked more horrifying than the one they’d just found.

The sight elicited screams out of Rock and Ryota, but Harold was far from scared.

“Is that supposed to be an _oni_? Gosh! He calls himself the SHSL Anthropologist? These props aren’t even accurate to--” Another identical prop appeared suddenly behind Harold. “UWAHHHH!!”

With all three of their badges now going off, they bolted it out of the woods, knocking the dummies to the floor on the way, leaving Spud stood right in the middle of it all, unfazed.

“Huh? Where’d everyone get to?”

* * *

 

The scares continued all over the place.

The exact same anthropology-based dummies were used to scare Katie, Sadie and Lindsay when their team also found candy of their own. The Total Drama Action prop of Chris’ corpse successfully eliminated Topher. Sudden splashes of fake blood evoked a loud enough scream from the likes of Jen and Amy. Lorenzo and Chet even figured out a way to duplicate Chris’ TDA impalement trick, which outed Laurie, Mahiru and Ella.

And unfortunately, the humiliation of some scares wouldn’t be private.

“First challenge and I’m already enjoying this.” The Trickster players and eliminated Treaters had the privilege of watching the remaining players getting eliminated by each scare, all thanks to a hidden camera in each of their badges, as Chef continued with his barbeque. And all the footage, without a hint of editing or doctoring, was being streamed live to a pair of large monitors.

Kokichi leaned back on the log the rest of his team was sat on, a burger in his mouth. Kiibo was on one side of him, looking slightly unnerved by what he was watching, with Brody, Ian and Jacques on the other side.

“Dude, this is epic! It’s like one of those found-footage horror movies!”

“This seems…rather insensitive to some of the players…” Kiibo leaned in to Kokichi.

“Aw, forget about that, Kii-boy! Can’t you just put that out of your head and enjoy yourself for once?”

“Forget about what?” Brody glanced over.

“Oh, nothing~, don’t worry about it. Iruma-chan just fancied having a little fun with Kii-boy before coming out here.”

“Gh! It was a maintenance check! Only!”

“But that’s not what we were _really_ talking about, was it?” Kokichi smirked, his demonic look returning.

Kiibo’s face went red with an inexplicable blush. “That’s…I-I…”

“Kokichi, whatever you’re doing, could you stop it?” Ian leaned towards them. “He’ll probably overheat or something…oh! Ryan & Kazuichi are finally gone. I think it was Gundam’s animals that did it.”

“A bunch of hamsters? Pathetic.”

“I’m pretty sure there was more to it than just hamsters. It _may_ have been my imagination, but I’m pretty sure there was a bear and a…shark with legs?”

“Ah, so Fang’s returned, eh?”

Duncan appeared behind the rest of his teammates, his regular clothes replaced with a costume not unlike that of the “escaped psycho killer with a chainsaw and a hook”.

“Did I miss anything good?”

“Harold went out thanks to Kiyo’s props, while he was calling them out for being inaccurate. And how’d the scaring go?”

He scoffed. “Leonard was easy picking. If anything I wanted it to go on longer.”

“And speaking of stuff you’ve missed…” Brody held a burger towards him.

“Thanks, man.” He sat himself between him and Ian, almost choking mid-bite as he looked at one of the monitors.

“What’s your problem?”

“Oh, god.” Duncan, now holding back laughter, pointed at the screen. “Team Comet & Tenko’s team are screwed.”

The rest of his team looked over at their respective sections on the monitors. The feeds from Owen and Akane’s badges showed each of them with a hand in one of their buckets. Both Kokichi and Jacques followed suit with the laughter, as did some of the other players in other teams. On the other hand, Zoey buried her head in her hands and Noah audibly groaned in frustration.

“I knew I should have been there instead of Shawn…”

“What? Shawn’s still in the game?” Sugar exclaimed, turning to Tsumugi. “I guess you’re up.”

The cosplayer was in what looked like a ripped and bloody cosplay, decked out in dirty green body paint. On Sugar’s cue, Tsumugi headed out into the woods, straight for the zombie nerd.

“Looks like Cameron’s in there, too.” Izzy also had a specific target in mind, already half in her old spider costume. “Be right back, guys!” She put the head on, following Tsumugi into the fray.

* * *

 

_Golden Girls_

One player had already gone, but it didn’t look like the rest of them were going down anytime soon.

Although the whole atmosphere of the challenge set Bridgette on edge a little, what with her phobia of being left alone in the woods, that was helped thanks to Miku stepping up as leader. The four girls left decided to stick together in their hunt, having successfully amassed twenty candies so far, and left the flashlight with Bridgette in an attempt to keep her from panicking.

“Anyone know how long we have left?” Kaede asked.

Sierra checked her phone. “It’s seven now, so we probably don’t have too long to go.”

“We’ve been out here for nearly two hours?” Bridgette fumbled with the flashlight a little. “Wow, it’s really not been that bad.”

“You’ve done great to stick it out this long!”

“Heh. I guess now we just need to make it last.”

Miku glanced into her bucket. “We should probably focus on finding the rest of our candies for now. I’ll head out with Kaede, Bridgette can go with Sierra. Sound good?”

The girls all nodded their affirmation and split off into their pairs, unaware of the figure hidden behind a tree, eying one of them as they walked away.

…

_The Huntsmen_

“Two hours and all five players still in the game!”

Despite the fact nobody had gotten themselves eliminated from the challenge yet, not everyone was taking it too well. Sure, Shinjiro and Geoff were perfectly fine, and Tomoko didn’t appear too perturbed by things, but Leon appeared to be slightly on edge. However his fear was nothing compared to their leader’s.

From the moment the challenge started, DJ had been clinging to the arms of his various teammates like a lifeline, Geoff now having his turn. He’d refused to carry even one candy in case he got scared, no matter how much encouragement he’d been given along the way, entrusting Leon with most of them.

“Obviously that means it won’t last until the end.”

“Shinji, how come you’ve lasted this long? I mean, no offence, but I thought you’d be the first to go.”

“When you’ve seen series like Another, Deadman Wonderland, Attack on Titan…you become desensitised to the kind of crappy gore some of the others would try to pull.”

Tomoko glanced behind her. “You do realise scares aren’t all about the gore?”

“Yeah, most great horror movies nowadays are all about psychological trauma. And even when they aren’t, not all of them focus on axe-wielding murderers. You’ve got your natural disasters, infected animals, the supernatural…”

DJ’s grip tightened on Geoff’s arm. “C-come on, man! C-can you stop t-talkin’ about this?”

“…sci-fi, zombies, and the good old-fashioned jumpscare!”

As though he’d summoned it, one of Korekiyo’s blood-soaked _oni_ models dropped down behind Tomoko, putting it in the light from Shinjiro’s flashlight. Only Leon saw it too, but it didn’t appear to have any affect on him, and while neither of the three others saw the scare, they knew something had happened by the anime fanatic’s strong yell and the buzzing that took its place.

Leon sighed. “Well, you were right, Geoff. He _was_ the first to go.”

Shinjiro groaned. “Damn it. So close to the end, too.” He trudged back to the cabins in annoyance.

Once he was out of sight, Leon jabbed the dummy. “Guess it _is_ easy to freak him out after all. All talk and no action.”

“Says you.”

The four of them continued on for another minute or so, when Geoff paused for a moment.

“What?”

“DJ, don’t look to the left.” He sidestepped around something on the floor, Tomoko following suit, while Leon hung back.

“K-kay…”

“Come on. After that, what could possibly be so bad?” Leon shone his flashlight to the left, probably four other _oni_ props hanging from the trees. “See? Nothing to be sc--”

The thing Geoff had sidestepped before suddenly exploded without even making the slightest noise, covering Leon’s jacket in fake blood.

Once again, DJ, Geoff and Tomoko were only made clear to the scare by Leon’s oddly shrill yelling and the buzzing once again.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Leon had already high-tailed it back to the start, unfortunately forgetting one crucial thing.

“Wait, Kuwata-kun! Your bucket!”

The baseball star didn’t hear her, continuing to run for the clearing with Shinjiro, with his flashlight and a hefty number of candies in hand.

“That idiot.” Tomoko groaned. “When we get back, Jacques’ probably going to kill us. Or him.”

Geoff nudged his friend. “Hey, DJ? Mind if we head to the bathroom? I gotta take a leak.”

“Uh, I g-guess…just don’t abandon me again!”

“I’ve already apologised for that!”

“Wait, hold on a minute!” Tomoko stopped the two of them. “What about me?”

They both turned back to her. “What about you?”

“Do I just stay here or what?”

“Well…you know…”

“No. I don’t.”

“It’s just, you might be on a guy’s team, but you’re not a guy…”

She just stared at Geoff in disbelief.

“C-can we just go already? I don’t like just standin’ around here.”

“Oh, right. We’ll be back in a bit. Just stay put and nothing else should happen.”

“Why not just pee into the bushes instead?”

They shared a look. “Oh. I guess that works too.”

He handed DJ the bucket & flashlight and proceeded to drop his pants, and unfortunately for Tomoko, the light now showed off one too many disturbing details.

“Oh! Okay, _now_ I’m leaving! Shout when it’s over!”

Tomoko turned her back to them and walked away some distance, not so far so she’d lose sight of the guys. After about a minute, she couldn’t hear any more rustling from behind her, making the assumption Geoff had finished his business, but didn’t dare look back on the off chance he’d still be stark from the waist down.

Another few seconds went with no updates, but she began to get a rough idea of what was happening when her surroundings gradually began to get darker.

“Did they forget about-- get back here!”

By the time she’d ran back to where they’d started, the light was even further away than before.

“Hey! You guys have the only flashlight! Geoff! _Geoff!_ ”

Neither guy seemed to hear her yelling, the team’s one light source having finally vanished from sight, and _that_ was enough to start unnerving Tomoko just a little. Thankfully, the murk only lasted a few more seconds, as a different flashlight illuminated the space around her once more, being carried by a member of a different team.

“Oh, Fukuhara-chan?”

“Asahina-san? How come you’re out here alone?”

“Our team went for the divide and conquer approach, and I lost sight of all of them. You?”

“Geoff and DJ went on a bathroom break and forgot I was waiting for them.”

“I see.” She lowered her flashlight and looked behind her shoulder. “So, this is going to sound a little weird, but could we team up for the rest of the game? There shouldn’t be that long left to go!”

“You really don’t understand how Total Drama works, do you? We’re on completely different teams.”

“I know, but I don’t really want to be out here alone much longer. Do you?”

Tomoko prepared to argue her point further, but stopped when she realised she still had no source of light of her own. Once more, she relented. “Fair enough. Alright then. But no sabotage.”

“Deal!”

…

_Hammerheads_

“Twenty-seven…twenty-eight…twenty-nine. Twenty-nine candies!”

“Nicely done, Gonta-kun,” Rantaro nudged Gonta’s elbow lightly, the primary cause of their good performance being Gonta’s vision.

“So do we try and look for the last one or not?” Trent asked.

“There isn’t too long left until the end…twenty-nine out of thirty is pretty damn good for our first challenge. Let’s just focus on staying in the game for the last few minutes – we have too much to afford to lose.”

Trent and Gonta nodded in agreement, when Gonta spotted another one of their own in the distance.

“Gonta thought Cody was in the other group.” His enhanced vision alerted him to Cody, sat on the floor and slumped against a tree.

“He is.”

“Some kind of problem?”

The three of them walked over towards him, when he quickly stood up and ran over.

“Guys! What the hell are you doing? You’re gonna ruin my big plan!”

They shared a look. “Plan?”

“To eliminate Sierra!”

Trent shone his torch at Cody’s torso, where he noticed the red stain on his clothes and the fake knife in his hand.

“Playing dead, eh?” Rantaro grinned. “That ought to work.”

“I thought so…now get out of here, or you’re gonna ruin everything!”

…

_Bridgette and Sierra (Golden Girls)_

“Okay, now I’m getting a little more scared. Tell me we’re nearly done.”

“Seven fifty-three. I hope so.”

“Do you think we could go back to the rest of the team? I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out.”

“Miku was right, though. For a fear of being left in the woods, lasting two hours is great!”

As with many of the other scares that night, fate appeared to be waiting for the girls to drop their guard slightly, as the weather chose that moment to go from clear to downpour. Whether naturally or as a result of the mechanical nature of Pahkitew Island was up in the air.

“Speaking of great…” Sierra cut Bridgette off with a screech – not loud enough to trigger her badge, but enough to distract Bridgette.

“Over there!” Sierra pointed towards a tree, where a person was slumped over. “I think Cody’s hurt!”

“Wh-- how can you tell it’s Cody from all the way back here?” Bridgette paused. “Oh. Right. This is you.” She ran after her, only to stop quite a distance behind the blogger. “Uh, Sierra? I wouldn’t keep going.”

“Why not? If we don’t do something, Cody might…end up…”

As expected, Sierra’s “Cody senses” had been dead on the mark…and apparently, so was Cody himself. His clothing was slightly torn, red stains all over his top half, and what looked like a kitchen knife protruding from his chest.

Too overwhelmed by the sight of him, Sierra emitted what must have been the loudest and most high-pitched screech so far in the entire game, all the while Bridgette attempted to make her see reason.

“Calm down! He’s not even supposed to be out here! It’s just another--” Again, Bridgette got cut off when Sierra dashed past her, knocking the flashlight from her hands. The glass smashed, and the light was extinguished soon after. Despite having held out for most of the game, Bridgette sadly could do so no longer, and ran screaming after Sierra.

…

_Tomoko and Hina (Huntsmen & Athletes)_

The fangirl’s screams echoed throughout the full reaches of the woods.

“Aaand, Sierra’s out.”

“What exactly was so bad that triggered a scream that loud?”

“Probably something to do with Cody.”

“Jeez…why couldn’t the rain have started _after_ the challenge?”

“I think the weather around here’s controlled by Chris and co. Blame him if you have to.” Tomoko put her hood up as Hina turned to face her.

“Even if we end up finding any more candies, will they still count if we don’t have a bucket?”

“No idea. That reminds me, there’s still one place that, if it’s still standing, none of my team ended up checking. And it should be…” she glanced around her, “just down here.”

Hina shone her flashlight in the direction indicated, a tiny shack coming into view.

“Isn’t that the old confessional booth?”

“Looks like they never removed it.”

No further attempts had been made to fix it, and it stank as much as ever, the smell reaching the girls’ noses even as far back as they were.

“Chances are Chris decided to drop a few candies down the toilet.” Hina’s disgusted face prompted Tomoko to continue. “Oh, calm down, it’s not like he’s gonna make us eat them…I hope.”

The two girls approached the confessional, noting the failed attempt at a scare on the roof, as well as the person in front of the door. They couldn’t see who it was yet, but right now they were sat on the ground not far from the door, unmoving, their bucket tipped over next to them. From where they stood, the bucket looked like it was white.

“Uh, hey, you over there. Everything okay?”

The person turned around at Hina’s voice, the light revealing the person to be Chiaki. She made no effort to get up, the expression on her face…worrying. Her eyes were wide, mouth slightly open, breathing deeply.

“Nanami-chan?”

When she didn’t reply, Tomoko & Hina ran over to the gamer girl.

“What happened? Here, get up, you’re gonna get muddy.” Tomoko helped her up, noting the bottom half of her hoodie and skirt were caked in mud.

“It was just a scare someone planted in there,” she pointed to the ajar door. “I don’t know why but it was…scarier than expected.”

“Yet you still didn’t scream? Can’t be too bad if that’s the case.”

Unlike Chiaki, however, Hina _did_ scream when she saw what was in there, slamming the door closed immediately. She too was hyperventilating and backing as far away as possible.

“Asahina…san?”

“N-not…not again…” It was barely audible, evading Chiaki, but Tomoko clocked into it.

“Talk to me, what’s even in…”

As she got closer to the door, Tomoko trailed off when something on the floor got stuck to her foot. Not mud like she’d been trudging through for the last few minutes, but something else…and it reeked. She grabbed the flashlight off of Hina and shone it down at her feet, revealing a small pool of red outside the door.

_…red…?_

For the last three days, Tomoko had successfully ignored all the truths about Hope’s Peak Academy, the thoughts of killing games and the apocalypse not once surfacing in her memory. But now, in the middle of this horror movie of a challenge, looking back at the stunned faces of Hina & Chiaki…

Throwing caution to the wind, Tomoko gulped and reached a hand to the confessional door, and cautiously pulled it open, shining the flashlight inside…

Two hours of walking through the dark woods, and she’d seen a fair few fake dead bodies, nothing bad enough to scare her. More like the kind of thing you’d find in a cheapjack haunted house.

None of that could have prepared her for what was inside the confessional.

Rings of blue and purple lining their throat.

Limbs hanging limply over the toilet bowl, sans one caught in their tie, which suspended them from the ceiling.

Knife embedded into their chest, a red shape reminiscent of a lightning bolt on the hilt, with a similar mark cut into their skin, the blood from both wounds leaking onto the floor.

The figure in front of her wasn’t one Tomoko recognised…but without a shadow of a doubt, this was no dummy.

It was a real corpse.

Tomoko’s scream was barely heard over the sound of an airhorn blaring down the PA systems.

* * *

 

“Times up! All players, make your way back to the meeting area!” Chris immediately turned to his co-hosts. “Chef! Don! We have a problem!”

“What kind?”

“The connection from the badges to the monitors went down. We can’t see where anyone is anymore. And then there’s the rain…why won’t it shut off?!” Chris glanced at Chef. “Hey, you think we can grab Cameron or Chihiro and get them into the control room?”

“Nah, need to figure out what’s goin’ on here first. Don’t want another attack of the killer robot animals.”

“You’re right. Don, go check all the candies. We’ll work on fixing this.”

“Why does it matter if the challenge is over?”

While the debating continued, each of the teams were either entering their candies into a pile or waiting for the rest of their players to come back. Except for one…

“Are you fucking kidding me? _All five of you_ got eliminated?!”

Fair to say, Josee was not best pleased with her team’s performance, but the team were hardly moved by her reaction. Bridgette was still trying to catch her breath, and Sierra breathing into a paper bag. Kaede made attempts to stop Amy from charging into Josee, while all Miku wanted to do was get a word in edgeways.

“Even you!” She pointed at the leader. “You call yourself a leader? You can’t even control those four!”

“Oh, lay off her!” Kitty intervened. “You probably wouldn’t have lasted five minutes out there!”

Josee clenched her fists and growled, giving Sierra the stink-eye. “Cody may not have been dead, but someone else _will_ be if this continues…”

The ice dancer stormed off back to the team’s cabin, as the eight Huntsmen ran to the edge of the woods, when they spotted their two remaining players. DJ was still holding Geoff’s arm but not as tightly as before.

“Way to go, DJ!”

“Knew you could do it!”

“Better than everyone else let on.”

“So _you_ made it to the end and _I_ didn’t?”

“Thanks guys…now I never wanna go out there again.”

Ian looked behind the pair. “What about Tomoko? She never got eliminated, did she?”

“I dunno. She went missing after I took a whizz. She’s not here?”

The eight other guys shared looks of confusion, when Chris interrupted them.

“Hina and Chiaki are still out there, too. Someone wanna go out looking for them?”

Peko was the first to respond, dashing out back into the woods, as Don got everyone’s attention.

“While we wait for them, I guess we should announce the team’s rankings before it gets even later. The candy’s been counted and the players assembled – whadaya know, two teams came out with all thirty candies! Our winners this time around however, with four out of five players, are the Most Dangerous Sisters! Congratulations.”

The ten girls high-fived.

“Unfortunately for Victorious Secret, two players weren’t enough, but hey, second place is still great! And better than we all expected. Hammerheads take third, with twenty-nine candies; Neo Amazons are in fourth, twenty-eight candies; in fifth are the Immortals – twenty-five; and Team Comet clinched sixth place with twenty-three candies…even though Owen was eating them.”

“I only ate seven!”

“And cost your team a higher ranking…”

“Seventh place goes to the Awesome Athletes – nineteen candies. Eighth for Team Victory 2.0…or rather Spud, with eighteen candies.”

“I told you the plan would work!”

“Oh, Atua’s Followers…if Akane hadn’t eaten _fourteen_ of your team’s candies, you could have been in second-place. But as it is, you get ninth place.” Akane grinned sheepishly under the glares of a couple of her teammates.

“Whether Tomoko went out or not, with fourteen candies, The Huntsmen are in tenth. Thanks to Jo, the Lightning Squad stay just above last place, with a measly eight candies. And since they lost all five players, the Golden Girls’ twenty-four candies are null and void, making you ladies today’s big-time losers!”

“With all that in mind,” Miku addressed the eight remaining members, “we should avoid the cabin for another few minutes while Josee cools off.”

“It won’t do any good waiting in the rain,” DJ similarly got the attention of his own team, “so I suggest we just wait in our cabin until Tomoko gets back.”

Chris hit the monitor one last time, sighing. “And with that out of the way, the first challenge of the Trials is over! Everyone head back to your cabins. Except for Chihiro or Cameron or anyone good with technology. We may need to borrow someone.”

All the players split up and went back to their respective living quarters, none the wiser of what transpired in the middle of the challenge.

…

When she eventually emerged from consciousness, Tomoko found herself no longer lying on the red and brown floor, instead perched against the wall of the confessional (thankfully the back wall, no longer able to see the door). Her face was soaking wet, probably from the rainwater leaking down her hair and the fact her hood had fallen off.

Opening her eyes, she saw Chiaki crouched in front of her, the flashlight still on and set at her feet.

“Thank goodness, you’re okay.”

“What…happened?”

“You passed out after…well…” Afraid to say it, she pointed round the front of the confessional. Tomoko followed her finger, where she did see Hina this time, cautiously inspecting the…

…the dead body.

“So that wasn’t just some insane nightmare?”

Chiaki just shook her head solemnly, when Hina came back round to them. “We need to go back now. Somebody has to know about this!”

“Shouldn’t someone already?”

“That’s the thing.” Chiaki removed her badge and held it up to her face. She yelled loudly into it, only for nothing to happen. “There’s also a camera in here, so if the sound detection isn’t working, the camera feed must be down as well.”

“And neither of ours went off when we screamed before, Fukuhara-chan.”

Tomoko had an endless stream of questions for Hina, having the most knowledge and experience with this kind of thing, but couldn’t ask any for two main reasons – Chiaki’s presence, and a fourth person joining them.

“Asahina? Nanami? Fukuhara? Are any of you here?”

“Ah, Pekoyama-chan!”

“What happened with the three of you?”

Chiaki and Tomoko joined them by the front of the shack, all three of them anxious about discussing it, Chiaki pondering why such a thing happened, Hina still caught up in the past. In the end, Tomoko was the one who pointed at the door. Concern washing over her anew, Peko opened the door, all three of the others averting their eyes.

Within seconds, Peko had hands on both Hina and Chiaki’s shoulders, forcefully herding them away from the confessional booth.

“Let’s go.” Her voice was stern as usual, both girls more than happy to get away from there. Tomoko immediately followed after them. She alone looked back at the confessional as they returned to the clearing.

Peko and Hina murmured with one another all the way back, Chiaki and Tomoko walking in silence. When they returned, Chiaki went straight to her cabin without a word to any of the three, while Hina continued to explain the situation to Peko as they went to their team’s trailer, casting a look back at Tomoko which basically screamed both ‘sorry’ and ‘I don’t want to talk about it, don’t ask me’.

 _So she_ doesn’t _know that I know…_

In that moment, stood alone in the middle of the clearing, with all the thoughts of the night coming together, any hope she had for the rest of the Trials shattered.

* * *

 

“I mean, at least tenth place isn’t last, right?”

“I…guess.”

“Well whatever place we end up in, you aren’t gonna go berserker mode like Josee, are you?”

“Of course not! I’m not _that_ obsessed with winning.”

Every other guy looked over at Jacques in pure disbelief, until the door swung open.

“Tomoko! About time you got back!” Shinjiro held a burger up. “Saved you something from dinner. It may or may not be cold now.”

“Mind explaining what the hell you got up to?”

Tomoko didn’t reply, instead walking to her bunk and scooping up her pyjamas & a towel.

“I get it, you’re still mad we left you in the woods. Sorry about that, brah.”

“Damn, your clothes are caked in dirt. And where’d all that fake blood come from?”

Tomoko shuddered, walking back to the door.

“Tomoko?” DJ stood up. “Something wrong?”

Her hand hovered over the door handle. Not once since she’d got back had the guys seen her face. “I…don’t want to talk about it right now, okay? I’m just going for a shower.”

“What about the burger?”

“Not too hungry either. All yours.” The door slammed closed behind her.


	16. The More You Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris brings back the short-lived team trivia challenge, and two players start to get to know more about each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I happy with how the challenge portion turned out? No. Am I happy with the Free Time Event which isn't even being done by the protagonist this time around? Yes.

Preparations for Friday’s challenge went ahead as normal, mainly because word of the corpse discovery went no further than the Future Foundation.

As soon as she could get privacy from the rest of her team, Hina went straight for the spa hotel, relaying everything she could to Kyoko and Byakuya, who in turn passed word onto Kyosuke and Chris respectively. The host easily swept the incident under the rug so as to avoid any panic, while Kyosuke was quick to enforce an investigation. Sadly, after two days, the leaders had produced zero leads.

“Nothing?”

The leaders murmured among themselves in response. Kyosuke sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation.

“Right. That’s fine. Thankfully, we have Asahina and Pekoyama’s accounts, and Chisa was able to learn more from Nanami. Kirigiri should be able to make better sense out of the situation than most of us. Other than that, we’ve apparently done all we can. The body’s been transported to the main headquarters for a forensic analysis, and when they arrive on the island, our other members will be put on high alert as to avoid the same thing happening in the future. As for all of you, should you be confronted by one of the players, do nothing to cause a panic. That’s the last thing we need. All we can do now is remain on guard and ensure the same thing doesn’t happen twice. Does everybody understand?”

The numerous members of Future Foundation murmured their approval before departing the spa hotel monitor room, while all the Total Drama non-contestants remained in the dining room, still none the wiser.

After the discovery, everyone with any knowledge of the matter was sworn into secrecy (at the very least, outside of those who couldn’t be trusted). Every member of Future Foundation, plus Komaru, were made aware, while Peko kept the matter strictly to herself, only keeping things from the rest of the 77th Class for Chiaki’s sake, the gamer having been given instructions from Chisa to do the same things. And for Tomoko, that all went without saying.

As for dealing with it…the aftermaths couldn’t have been more different. Chiaki remained shaken but suppressed the memory easily enough. In her words, “like witnessing the death of a beloved video game character – it can have a powerful effect on you, but you don’t ride on it forever”. And other than one minor panic while she was in the shower, Hina now viewed the incident the same way she looked back on the killing games – still a bit haunted, but not dwelling on it too hard and willing to move forward.

Tomoko, however, while able to deal with it on the outside, was having a hell of a time on the inside. It was bad enough dealing with the knowledge of the Tragedy & the killings, the amnesia, and now _this_. The night after, she couldn’t get a wink of sleep without the aid of sleeping pills (something she’d snagged from under her bed at the last minute before coming to the island), and hadn’t kept any food down until dinner the day after, but only because the lack of food in her system had made her hungry. In the end, any worries were dissolved when she put it down to a cold caused by the sudden change in weather during the challenge.

Thankfully, the professionalism of everyone involved meant that things could continue as smoothly as before, enabling a smooth and (excluding the aforementioned) painless transition into the next challenge.

* * *

 

Much like in Revenge of the Island, twelve replicas of the Peanut Gallery benches had been assembled in the shallowest part of the lake, but unlike before, the harnesses had been removed from the seats. Each seat still had an identical red buzzer in front of it.

“Former second-generation players should be more than familiar with what sort of challenge this is going to be.”

“Oh, right. The one you ended early because my teammates were too spineless to own up to a little humiliation.” Jo statement earned glares from her former fellow Maggots.

“Not only that!” Scott joined in. “It was also the challenge with the…the sh-sh-sharks! No way am I doing that again!”

“Will the pair of you calm down?! Much like its season four predecessor, this challenge is all about trying to get to know your teammates a little better, although this time, unfortunately, there won’t be as much embarrassment factor.” Everyone verbally breathed a synchronised sigh of relief at this. “Mainly because we never even _completed_ the challenge when people were being embarrassed! There will be some differences to the last one, however. While last time the people who the question applies to had to own up, now your teammates have to figure out who it is. Each team has three guesses to figure out who I’m talking about – use up all three, and your team is out of the running for first place. As for difficulty levels, I guess it depends on how secretive the person is.”

“At least nobody gets shocked this time, right?”

“ _Wrong_ , Cameron! I was just getting to that part. If you buzz in and answer incorrectly, both you and the person who you guessed will receive an electric shock through their seat. Use up all three guesses, and the whole team gets shocked. Also, if you happen to buzz in to answer a question about yourself, your team is automatically out of the running – oh yeah, and you all get shocked again! Last team standing wins first place!”

“And the sh-sharks?”

“Relax, Scott. The electric shocks are _instead_ of being dunked in the lake.” Scott finally relaxed a little.

Chris pulled one of those cards that hosts use on quiz shows, out of his shirt pocket. “Team Comet, I’m gonna come to you first. Which one of you guys is fluent in three languages?”

Shuichi was quick to hit his buzzer. “That’s Kaito.”

“Correct! To be more specific: Japanese, English and Russian.”

“Wow, colour me impressed,” Noah said. “Guess you aren’t just another typical airhead jock like Tyler.”

“It’s all part of the astronaut training!” Kaito grinned, not acknowledging the airhead comment – intentionally or not remained to be seen.

“Awesome Athletes, this one may be a little harder than the last. Who has a celebrity crush on Jason Statham?”

Clearly, nobody had a clue, until Mukuro got a look at the slightly red face of one of her teammates. “Asahina.”

“That obvious, huh? You’re still in the game, ladies.” He looked over at the next team along. “Huntsmen, other than Shinjiro, who is the only other member of your team to have been fired from a job?”

Before anyone chose to buzz in, ten of the members of the team looked at Duncan.

“Don’t look at me. Never had one in the first place.”

“Wait, Shinjiro got fired?” Ian looked over. “So _that’s_ why we stopped hearing about your job after second year.”

“Long story short, don’t use your lunch break to build a monster burger using the restaurant’s stock.”

Brody buzzed in. “I dunno, Jacques?”

The answer came in the form of a large electric jolt through the chair of the two guys, as Chris went back to his former self taking pleasure from the players’ misfortune.

“Heh, sorry. I had a feeling that would be wrong already.”

“But I thought we were on good terms now!”

“Couldn’t resist doing it just once. Karma and all that, you get it, right?” Brody smiled at the ice dancer, which was far from reciprocated.

Geoff was the next to attempt to answer. “I know this one! The D man!”

“Correct!”

“ _You_ got fired?”

DJ grinned sheepishly. “Don’t mix the animals at the pet shop. S’all I’m sayin’.”

“Golden Girls, which one of your teammates can ride a motorcycle?”

Before any of the players could confer with one another, Sierra slammed the buzzer down. “It has to be Amy!”

“You would be right! And before I forget, just so you don’t get an unfair advantage, you’re limited to four more answers. Izzy, that goes for you too.”

“Really?” Kitty questioned the cheerleader. “Motorcycles?”

“Told you there was more character to me than in season six.”

“Hooray, you’re the female version of the guy with the corncob hair,” Josee said nonchalantly. “That immediately equals character, does it?”

“ _Lightning Squad_!” Any conflict between players would probably result in the challenge ending prematurely again, so Chris was desperate to avoid any similar disagreements between the teams. “Who out of you is lactose intol--”

Buzz. “Fuyuhiko.”

“Uh, right. Correct. Most Dangerous Sisters, whose favourite food is gyoza?”

Despite getting a good look at everyone else’s faces, nobody was giving anything away. After a moment with nobody conferring, Jen was forced to press the buzzer and make a wild guess.

“Chiaki?” On cue, both girls jerked in their seats.

“It’ll probably be the ones we don’t expect so…” Mikan hit the buzzer next. “Maybe Toko?” The same result came about, only this time the electricity brought out Genocider, and Mikan timidly apologised to the rest of her team.

Recovering from her previous shock, Chiaki reached for her own button. “If it’s this difficult to figure it out, then I guess that leaves Celeste.”

“You really saved your team with that one! MDS only just managed to scrape through into the next round, but can they keep it up? With someone like Celeste on their team, I’m gonna have to say no.”

Komaru pouted. “Could have given us an easier question like the others.”

“And if I were you, I’d be working _with_ your teams, rather than against them.”

The rest of the questions for round one were easy enough for the teams to nail them on the first try: Rodney tried to date a clothing store mannequin, Stephanie hates beans, the Imposter doesn’t have a real name, Zoey is skilled in archery, Max plays the French horn, and Tsumugi used to work as a bartender. Alright, technically, it took the Immortals all three guesses to work out Max’s statement.

Over the next few rounds, the questions remained relatively easy, even though it still took the Immortals all three tries to get to the answers.

“Comet, who is partially colour blind?...Lightning, who survived a plane crash?...Amazons, which of you is repulsed by Western influence?...Hammerheads, who was paid to beat their father in a game of chess?...Amazons, who once performed the national anthem at an ice hockey match?” That kind of thing.

Jay, Nagito, Hiyoko, Cody and Ella, in case you were wondering.

By the seventh round, all twelve teams were somehow still standing, some players a little out of it from repeated electric shocks. Those who weren’t, however, were actually interested in finding out more about the others with each new question, the Golden Girls in particular.

“Athletes, which two members of your team attended the same high school? Before Hope’s Peak, I mean.”

Before she could catch the answer to their question, Leshawna was pulled under the bench by Kitty, sat directly next to her.

“Kit? What’s up?”

“I just came up with the perfect idea to unleash some karma!”

“On…Josee, I’m guessing?”

“You know it. And Amy, if you want.”

“But I thought the two of you were friends now?”

They paused at the sound of the Athletes getting electrocuted.

“Not to mention she kinda already got her just desserts.”

“I know. But why stop at just one bout of karma?”

Leshawna pondered this for a moment. In no way whatsoever were Leshawna or Kitty bad people, but in the history of Total Drama, there had never once been a problem with the good guys getting revenge on the bad guys. She smirked at the selfie lover and nodded.

“What exactly did you have planned?”

Another buzz from the Athlete’s bench. “I guess Peko and Sakura?”

“Well, Chris _did_ explain the rules about what happens if we get a question wrong, didn’t he?”

She was quick to realise what exactly Kitty was thinking about, the girls sharing a mischievous grin before taking their seats again. Neither of them gave a damn at this point about Duncan’s childhood pet…they just waited for their chance to strike.

“Okay, ladies, this should be another relatively easy one. Which one of you is vegan?”

Still not having used up all her answers, Sierra made a move for the buzzer, only for Leshawna to intervene.

“I dunno…Amy seems the vegan type…”

Leshawna was already braced for the pending electrocution, unlike the cheerleader. Bridgette waited until the shocks had finished before leaning into Leshawna.

“I thought you already knew it was me,” she whispered to her partner.

“I do, girl, but it’s worth it to dish out some revenge.”

On that note, Kitty hit the buzzer next. “Nah, I know it wouldn’t be Amy. But I guess it _could_ be Josee…”

“What? No it could--” Both her and Kitty jolted in their seats as electric currents coursed through them. “You know I’m not vegan! You’ve seen what goes into Chef’s food, and I’ve eaten it.”

“Oh, I know…” Kitty and Leshawna high-fived as Sierra finally took her chance.

“Finished yet? It’s Bridgette.”

“A risky strategy, ladies…but I approve!”

Josee growled at Chris’ approval of the girls’ actions, while Amy just hung her head. “Yeah, sure, I deserve that.”

 

_Round Eight_

“Alright, I know I said I wanted the game to go on longer than before, but this is boring! All twelve teams still standing after seven rounds? I guess it’s time to bring in some harder questions. On that note, Team Comet, whose father used to work in security?”

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about making them harder,” Mickey said, quite surprised at how quickly Mondo hit his buzzer.

“It ain’t hard if you know enough about the person. Fujisaki.”

“Uh, yeah. That’s correct. I’m surprised you knew that one.”

Despite the players starting to sound a little too alike with the Athlete's next question, they were barely able to progress to the next round.

“Alrighty then. Huntsmen, who doesn’t always go by their real name?”

The eleven members of the team all looked at the host in confusion. “What kind of a question is that? It barely even makes any sense!”

Tomoko hesitantly reached for her buzzer. “I dunno…DJ?”

Both her and DJ were met with extreme amounts of electricity through their seats.

“How? We only seem to know him around here by DJ, not his real name!”

“Okay then...” Duncan pressed the buzzer. “It has to be Leon – I mean, how many Japanese people have English names?”

Again, the two boys lurched at the shock.

“’Kay, I guess many people do.”

“I’m not really supposed to give hints,” Chris glanced back down at the question card in his hand, “but it would help if you listened to the question properly.”

DJ thought about the wording of the question carefully. “Doesn’t always go by their real name…so some people know them by their real name while others don’t…I guess that could mean a stage name?”

“But who here would even go by a stage name?”

Shinjiro snapped his fingers suddenly. “Oh! I think I’ve got it!”

But before he could volunteer his answer, Kokichi slammed his hands down hard onto his own buzzer. “Kiibo!”

“Ouma-kun, what are you doing?!” At that, the entire team were met with more volts through their seats than last time, the whole thing almost causing Kiibo to short-circuit. “You know that Kiibo is my real name!”

“Yeah, but this challenge is starting to get kinda boring.”

“And _that_ serves as adequate reason to sabotage the entire team?!”

Chris laughed. “Well, you heard it. Thanks to pure boredom, the Huntsmen are out of the running for points, finishing with only one. If you want to head back to your cabins, feel free, or you can stay put and watch the rest of the game. Oh, and by the way, it’s actually _Ian_ who doesn’t always go by his real name!”

After the previous looks that were directed at Duncan and DJ, now all other eyes were on Ian (?), who just looked at Chris in surprise.

“Wait, that was supposed to be about me?”

“Okay man, you better explain when we get back to the cabin.”

“So, I take it we’re all leaving?”

None of the team said anything in response, instead forcing themselves to stand up (still reeling slightly from the currents still in their systems) and jumping off the benches, walking away from the challenge in a mix of pain, confusion and anger.

Chris watched as they left, eventually looking to the next team down the line. “Okay then, on with the game!”

* * *

 

“Tenth place on day one, _last_ on day two?! This is unacceptable!”

“Chill out, man! The only way is up from here!”

“And at least we know a little more about each other…right?”

This time, not one person shared Geoff and Brody’s sentiments.

“Okay then, time to awkwardly wallow in defeat in our cabins.” Tomoko turned on her heel and walked for the door. “I’d say head for the mess hall, but take my word for it, Chef would make us do kitchen duty.”

“Worst of all, it’s probably going to be another ten rounds until the next team are out.”

“Yeah…no.”

The Huntsmen looked behind them to see the Golden Girls, again with varying levels of emotion. A few were huddled around Miku asking about something relating to one of Chris’ questions, Amy and Leshawna were in an awkwardly passive-aggressive conversation, and Josee was on the verge of exploding once more. Mostly at Kitty and Leshawna. Sierra wasn’t with them, likely having decided to keep playing along with the game by herself.

“Well that’s…alright, I kinda saw that coming,” Kokichi said. “So who sabotaged you?”

“Who do you think?” Amy pointed to Kitty. “And honestly, I thought it was going to be the Ice Queen taking her revenge that would doom us.”

“Guess we’re all finishing at the bottom of the leader board this week,” Miku groaned. “And hey, the only way is up from here, right?”

“We’ve just had this conversation.”

A moment of silence passed between the two teams, until DJ walked towards the mess hall. “Alright then, I’m goin’ to see if Chef needs a hand. At least it’ll give me somethin’ to do. Anyone wanna tag along?”

Amy, Shinjiro, Kiibo and Leshawna followed him towards the building, while the Ice Dancers headed towards the woods, Jacques significantly further behind.

“I’m assuming he’s making sure Josee doesn’t burn the island to the ground.”

“Or they’re both going somewhere private to bitch about us.”

The rest of the group went their separate ways to do something with the rest of the day. The three surfers went for the beach, as far away from the challenge as possible, while everyone else finally went back to their cabins. Except for two people – Ian and Miku.

“Guess we’ve all still got a way to go until our teams get along even slightly,” Miku remarked.

“You’re not going with them?”

“I don’t feel like spending the rest of the day stuck in the cabin. My team are kind of psycho.”

“Aren’t the main problems elsewhere?”

“They are, but I still want to do _something_.”

“Like what, exactly?”

“Now I think about it, there is another place on the island that we were never introduced to, which I’ve been wanting to check out for a while. Why don’t we have a look together?”

Ian nodded. “Okay then. Where abouts is it?”

* * *

 

_Round Nine_

Nine teams remained, the third elimination being that of the Immortals immediately behind the first two, who had no longer been able to save themselves at the last opportunity.

As the Hammerheads were conferring about their next question, Sammy nudged Jasmine. “You know what the Golden Girls were just doing against Amy & Josee? Isn’t their someone here who should have the same treatment?”

“I dunno mate…do we really wanna risk losing?”

“Amazons, whose favourite movie genre is action?”

“Who cares? Last place is already taken!” Stephanie quickly attempted to answer. “Heather seems like that type.”

As expected, the girls’ seats lit up.

Jasmine reached a hand to her buzzer after some brief deliberation, only for Stephanie to butt in once more.

“Are you sure? Because I’m pretty sure it was Heather.”

“Is that your guess?”

“Of course that isn’t her--” Heather was cut off by another shock, both girls starting to emit a little smoke off their clothing at this point. Most of the team were overwhelmed at the girls’ stupidity, while Hiyoko was revelling in it. Stephanie suddenly froze up in slight embarrassment.

“Alright, that may have boned us. I have no idea who it could be now.”

“Maybe if you didn’t waste your time on sabotage.”

“Says you.”

This time, Jasmine was able to fit her guess in. “Sorry in advance, you guys, but…Crimson…?”

A brief moment of nothing passed, causing Stephanie and Heather to breathe a sigh of relief…when they were met with the same sensation a third time, and this time their teammates weren’t let off the hook from it.

“Sorry ladies, you’re out! And believe it or not, it was actually _Kirumi_!”

“I…did not expect that from you.”

“I have served many a client who enjoy such films, and have therefore developed my own taste for them over the years.”

…

“Victorious Secret, who is the way they are today thanks to a life-changing accident?”

All but one of the girls exchanged a subtle look with one another, before Mary pressed the buzzer and said what everyone was thinking. “Lindsay?”

Surprisingly, they were all wrong. “If that’s the case then I have…multiple questions.”

Beth went next. “Maybe it’s the opposite then…Ellody?”

Nope. “While it may seem improbable to the rest of you, my intelligence is wholly natural.”

Having taken a leaf out of the other female teams’ book, Anne Maria made her own guess. “There’s no way Sugar’s made it this long the way she is without an accident.”

The pageant girl was ready to wring her neck but was prevented from doing so by the impending electrocution.

“Heh, fucking morons. The answer was right in front of you!”

“It was you, Iruma-san? Even I didn’t know that.” Tsumugi paused as she considered the capabilities of her talent, and her everyday behaviour. “Alright, that does actually make sense. Is that what you meant back in Japan when you called yourself an augmented human?”

“I mean, you really think people can be born with my levels of brilliance? Get a fuckin’ clue!”

 

_Round Fourteen_

Three questions previous in round eleven, one more team had been outed from the game – the Awesome Athletes. Even though they’d done well enough up until that point, the question was just so inclusive it could have applied to anyone on that team…the one point where having such a similarly minded group of teammates was a disadvantage. And now it looked like it was the turn of the Lightning Squad.

“Do I look like the kind of person who’d like curry-flavour popcorn?”

“I wasn’t suggesting you were, I was simply trying to ask a clarifying question!”

“I didn’t even know there _was_ a curry flavour.”

Chris tapped his foot impatiently. “Uh, guys? Need an answer.”

“Well evidently there is!”

“Sounds disgusting. Don’t see how anyone _could_ like it.”

“It ruins a perfectly good cinema snack.”

“I’ve wanted to try it for a long time now.”

“Well that wasn’t the question was it, Bec Cola?”

“Clock’s ticking…”

“Not your best nickname, Jo.”

“Come on…Kazuichi _Souda_?”

“How did I end up on this poor excuse for a team?”

“Will somebody just answer the dang question already?!”

“You’re so upset, why don’t you do it?!”

“Because we don’t know who here likes curry flavoured popcorn!”

“Uh, why doesn’t anyone just go for the one person in the group who’s normally the loudest, who hasn’t said anything this whole time?”

“Why don’t you do it yourself then?!”

Unfortunately, Hajime was unable to do so, as all eleven were met with the same shocks as everyone else before them. “What the hell? Nobody said anything!”

“Exactly!” Chris tore his current question card up and tossed it off his podium. “You all took too long! And for the record, Hajime was right. It _was_ Nekomaru. Now all of you go back to your cabins! I actually _want_ to finish this challenge this time around!”

And while bickering was what led to this team’s downfall, stupidity turned out to be the cause of the next team’s elimination in that same round.

“Team Victory 2.0, interpret this as you will…who was born with nothing?”

The guys now understood the confusion of the Huntsmen a few rounds previous. “What the heck is that supposed to mean?!”

Yet another example of Chris’ wording of the questions proved to stump Team Victory, everyone who guessed had taken the “interpret this as you will” part too far, guessing Justin, Hagakure and (thanks to Spud) Justin a second time, missing the blatantly obvious choice of the SHSL Imposter _who only goes by his high school title you idiots how did you last this long?!_

With that, only four teams were left in the running.

 

_Round Twenty-One_

“Atua’s Followers, who grew up with an unhealthy number of siblings?”

Unlike the other teams, Atua’s Followers appeared to be getting along and cooperating much better than most of the others. They were able to get to most of their answers on the first try and deduce them relatively easily by conferring, with very little drama.

Sadly, after twenty-one rounds, something was bound to go wrong eventually.

Buzz. “That’s me, right?”

Before Tenko could inform Akane of her error, the girls surged with electricity.

“You are right, but unfortunately, you weren’t supposed to answer your own question.” Chris let out a different kind of laugh to his other ones, this one out of borderline sadism. “Also, responsible for costing your team the win twice in a row? Gotta hurt.

“Alright, down to the final three teams – Team Comet, The Most Dangerous Sisters, and the Hammerheads!”

 

_Round Twenty-Five_

“Damnit, all out of fun questions. Well then, Team Comet, I’m afraid we’re only left with the more personal questions this time around. With that in mind…um…”

In the past, Chris would have had zero qualms with revealing something personal about another player. And while he wasn’t completely a changed man from his former self, his experiences relating to the Tragedy and the crises surrounding it helped somewhat.

Which is why he was confused as to why and how he’d come into possession of a question card which said, “which of your team members have been linked to the deaths of someone close to them?”. No numbers of people, just ‘which of your team’.

“Um…this is…uh…”

“And you got mad at Lightning’s team for taking too long.”

“Hey, uh, Makoto? Mind coming over here a second?”

Intrigued, Makoto pushed past the rest of his team and moved from podium to podium until he was next to Chris. Once he’d landed on the central podium, he showed him the card he’d been given. Makoto’s expression quickly changed to one of horror, but was quickly able to mask it as Chris started whispering in his ear. He nodded sternly and jumped off into the lake.

“Right, well, Makoto hasn’t let me use this question about him, on account of it being a little too personal,” Chris lied, “so I guess, because you all know about it…and I’m all out of Comet questions, you guys are out. Sorry.”

No electric shock followed.

Exchanging looks with each other, then glancing at the equally as confused TD veterans on the other two teams, they followed their teammate back to the beach.

In the meantime, Topher leaned into Cody. “This is weird. Chris never passes up an opportunity to humiliate us.”

“What kind of ghost scared him straight?”

“Right, we’re down to the final two now. MDS, this is for your second straight victory! Either way, no matter who wins, you’re both finishing this week pretty high up on this week’s leader board! This time, we’re going to a sudden death round, with only one guess per team. First team to guess correctly wins the day! And to make things that little bit harder, no in-depth conferring for the rest of the game.” The host was quick to return to his normal demeanour, although the previous attitude change wasn’t lost on the teams.

“Most Dangerous Sisters, which of you was born in Tochigi Prefecture in Japan?”

“Oh, no, it’s the gyoza question all over again.”

With the no conferring rule in place, the players took to analysing one another’s facial expressions. While most of them were neutral or bored, Dakota took note of Komaru’s concerned look aimed at the leaving Team Comet.

Interpreting the look completely wrong, she volunteered an answer. “Komaru?”

“Wrong! Hammerheads…”

“Wait, what happened to the--” Junko put a hand to Dakota’s mouth before she could say “electric shock”, which once again didn’t come.

“Who was actually born into quite a refined & rich family? And yes, I’m talking about the one you don’t know about, _Alejandro_.”

Rantaro already knew it would either be himself or Gonta, so buzzed in in the hopes it was the latter. “Gonta?”

“Correct! Hammerheads win the challenge and take 15 points!”

The team cheered and high-fived all around, while Dakota glanced to Celeste.

“Let me guess, it was you again?”

Her only response was her signature giggle.

“Well,” Chris pocketed the rest of his question cards, “despite one minor hiccup, it’s safe to say this challenge went down much better than the season four version. That one’s staying on the list for the final series line-up.”

“Chris,” Alejandro said, “you do realise that we know all these facts about the other players now. Won’t that make this challenge redundant in the all-star series?”

As the host pondered this, MDS and the Hammerheads dismounted from their teams’ podiums, both very happy with the final positions they’d finish in that week, and made their way back to their living quarters. As soon as everyone was gone, Chris reached for his walkie-talkie.

“Yeah, Chef. Scrap the Getting to Know You challenge from the list. I should have thought that one through a little better.”

He looked at the lake below him, still catching a couple of scraps of card floating on the surface. He returned to the walkie-talkie.

“Also, tell Byakuya I have news for him. And not the good kind.”

* * *

 

As it turned out, there was more in the island’s additional building than they’d expected. It was the same one where Korekiyo had gotten all his Halloween challenge props from. In the main bulk of the building were a number of musical instruments, a mini kitchen, a mini library, a sewing machine and a number of other things relating heavily to the talents of some of the SHSL students. It even looked like they’d recreated a miniature version of the zero-g simulator from TDA in the back, specifically for Kaito.

While the remaining teams were dealt with question after question following their own elimination, Ian and Miku had gotten a good look at all the equipment available to the players, and the former was more than a little happy when he’d found everything he could possibly need if inspiration ever struck.

Once they’d gotten to know every corner of the room, Miku had made drinks for the two of them using the mini-kitchen – tea for herself, coffee for Ian.

“It’s a shame they didn’t have anything for your talent in here.” Ian sat himself on a trunk which most likely was intended for Tsumugi, given the vast amount of materials in there.

“Ah, well, journalism isn’t the kind of thing you can prepare for, is it?” She took a sip from her cup. She was sat on the floor opposite the trunk.

“I guess not.”

There was a brief moment of silence between them, as Miku remembered the revelation that came from the challenge, which was yet to be explained.

“So…Ian isn’t your real name?”

He rubbed the back of his neck at her question. “Nope. Just a nickname, short for Damian. Damian Griffin Costello.”

“Why shorten it? I think it sounds cool!”

“Heh, thanks.” Ian went slightly red. “Mainly for convenience, like most other people who go by nicknames. I only really use my full name for important documents and songwriting. It was just something I felt like doing in school – everyone with embarrassing long names was doing it – and it just stuck since then. Even my parents call me Ian.”

“Unless you’re getting told off.”

“Obviously. So, yeah, since the early years I’ve gone by Ian Costello in my everyday life, but for songwriting I use my first and middle name – so, Damian Griffin.”

“How come?”

“Honestly, I think that choice was an age thing. How many people do you know who’d willingly perform a song written by a…what, ten-year-old newbie?”

“Have you seen those singing shows on TV nowadays?”

“Yeah, but those are more for singing than writing, unless you can do both. And between you and me, not all songwriters can sound like Whitney Houston. Anyway, the first one I handed in proved to be a success and I just decided to keep things that way.”

“But…okay, no offence. If you’re the SHSL Songwriter and supposedly responsible for a number of big songs, why have I never heard of the name Damian Griffin before?”

“Firstly, Chris was the one who recruited me for the Neo Hope’s Peak, before it was even called the Neo Hope’s Peak, so the same rules don’t really apply. Secondly, it might have something to do with the fact that I don’t always get credited for the songs.”

“Really?” Miku huffed. “Musicians really can be jerks.”

“Oh, no, I ask not to be credited in some of them. Being a kid in high school, paparazzi attention is the last thing you need. I mean, what with current technology, word gets out eventually about my involvement, but it’s too late by then. But…” Ian’s mug started to shake a little in his hand.

“What?”

“N-no. Never mind.”

“Come on. Tell me.” Miku downed the rest of her tea and set the cup on the floor beside her. “I promise it doesn’t leave this room. Unless you don’t mind it reaching other people.”

“It’s not that it’s meant to be secret. I just don’t like talking about it. Hell, I don’t know if I’ve ever told anyone other than my parents about it.”

“Well…maybe telling someone else will relieve of the weight of some of it?”

Ian glanced at her. She had a look on her face of keen interest for his life story, which at the same time showed respect for his privacy. She wasn’t going to pressure him into talking, but her demeanour seemed compassionate enough to convince him to do so.

Eventually, Ian sighed. “You know on my ElectroID it says I don’t like scandals?”

“I didn’t, but I’ll take your word for it.”

“When I was twelve, there was a song of mine which was picked up by a huge artist at the time. He himself tended to write many of his own songs, and the one I wrote was the only one of someone else’s on the whole album. Everything looked great – he had tons of fans, the release date was all lined up…” Ian looked into the remnants of his coffee. “And then word gets out that he was responsible for…well, every scandal in the book. Drugs, physical abuse, sexual abuse…it all got met with a huge backlash. So big they had to cancel the album’s release.”

As Ian paused, Miku didn’t say anything, instead choosing to keep listening.

“It’s not even the fact it happened that I hate. It’s just…” he put his mug down and looked down at his feet, forlorn, “that was the first time another artist had come to _me_ for a song. Every other time before, and ever since then, I’ve only had my breaks by approaching other artists. That must mean the song was that good, right? Shame I had to disown it to protect my career.”

Miku still watched him intently.

“I know what you’re thinking. I was only twelve. I could do plenty more with my life. Not really. Music and songwriting were things that I was really passionate about, and all the ones I’d put out previously had been really popular. I don’t regret saving my career…it just angers me to no end that it was at the cost of my best one.”

Ian finally looked down at Miku, surprised she’d actually been listening to everything. “Heh, sorry for dumping all that exposition on you. It just feels good to get it all out for a change.”

“It’s fine. If anything I thought it was interesting to know more about your talent.” Miku tucked her knees into her chest. “And I don’t see why you should let the incident get you down so much. Sure, so you lost your greatest achievement, but not everyone’s immune to those kinds of problems. Scandals can happen to anyone. Even Super High School Levels have their dark days. But you learn from those moments…or in your case, I guess, try and match up to it?”

“I get what you’re saying, but technically speaking I didn’t lose it. Between you and me, I have a digital copy on my phone that I put together myself. I play it whenever I need inspiration, only it’s with my vocals instead of his. If it had his, I might just have tossed my phone out the window long ago.” Despite the circumstances, Ian couldn’t help but laugh at the thought, Miku joining in with the change in atmosphere.

“Then that’s even better! You’re using the thing that brought you down the lowest, in order to help build yourself back up to the highest!”

“You know, I never thought of it that way. For me it was just a case of ‘it’s the best song I’ve done, now to replicate it’.” Ian stood up from the trunk. “Thanks to you, I may just be able to finally tell the others about it all. That and the whole name thing.”

Miku closed her eyes and smiled. “Glad I can be of help!”

“Well then, I’m heading back to the cabin. Next time, you owe me an explanation.”

“Explanation for what?”

“Your talent. We’ve been friends for just shy of a couple months, and you know about my biggest obstacle. Next time we do something like this, I want to hear about your worst journalism incident.”

“Believe me, I have quite a few of those handy, so it shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

“You coming?”

“I think I’m going to have another drink in here. See if we missed anything.”

“Okay then, see you around.” Ian walked out the door, only to return within a few seconds. “Right, and good luck dealing with Josee when she gets back.”

“Given some of my own incidents, I shouldn’t have a problem with her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story's protagonist may not have been part of the FTE thing, but another protagonist event is coming up next week...


	17. A (Wo)man's Fantasy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Man’s Nut: a huge nut that can't be found in nature. It's said to exist within a man's heart. It's said that consuming this will increase your power to pursue romance_
> 
> You already know what's coming.

With the first week of the Trials at an end and Sunday having rolled around, the teams caught a break – Chris announced that there wouldn’t be any challenges on a Sunday, giving the players the chance to mingle without getting competitive with one another.

Another location had been formally introduced to the group because of this – all it really was, was one giant talent lab for the SHSL students. All kinds of items had been put in for multiple talents – punching bags, guitars and a mini kitchen area (since Chef refused to let Teruteru into his own kitchen), with the more niche items like Korekiyo’s anthropology props shoved into crates and loaded into the attic. A lot of people chose to frequent this area on their first official day off. But one had very different ideas.

Early on Sunday morning, a player crept out of their living quarters, a small bag of supplies in hand, and headed for Chef’s kitchen. Thanks to the sheer number of people needing food, he needed to get up early to prepare enough breakfast. Unfortunately for him, despite having left for an early toilet break, the door was unlocked and easy for anyone to get into.

This particular player took advantage of this opening, pushing the door to the mess hall open and vaulting the window, landing on their back on the kitchen floor.

With the bathrooms just in view from the kitchen window, they set their bag down and rummaged for all the utensils they needed, before getting to work on…whatever it was they were planning, until Chef returned some fifteen minutes later and shooed them out. With a knife.

…

While the rest of their teams had gone elsewhere, whether it was to hang out with other players or take a shower, Tomoko and Kaede were sat out on the steps to the girls’ cabin.

“So, how are you liking Total Drama so far?” Tomoko asked.

“I would probably be liking it more if we were winning.”

“How many points did you guys get again?”

“Three.”

“Ouch. Well, we only got four. But hey, every team has their turnaround eventually!”

Kaede gave her a look of disbelief.

“Okay, except for Team Victory season three. But I have a good feeling about our teams in this thing!”

The look persisted.

“…I mean it could take some time, but still.” Tomoko held a bag of food in front of Kaede. “Nuts?”

“Where’d you find those?”

“Ouma-kun stole them from Chef’s kitchen. But don’t tell anyone.”

Kaede shrugged and stuck a hand into the bag. “Sure, why not.” The pianist stuck her hand in and pulled a handful of nuts out, chewing them a few times to figure out their flavour. “What kind are these?”

“Beats me. The packet’s in another language. All Ouma-kun said was they apparently grow on some island in the Pacific Ocean. But then again that _was_ Ouma-kun, so…”

“Oh, no.”

Kaede’s statement wasn’t out of response to Kokichi’s 99% chance of another lie, but who was approaching their cabin.

“Enoshima-san and Komaru-san?”

Junko had an arm over Komaru’s shoulders, one of her own hands resting on her tricep. While the model had a grin on her face, Komaru looked slightly awkward.

“What do you want? Rubbing your victory in our faces?”

“Of course not! I’m here for something a little different…” The model’s grip on Komaru’s shoulders tightened, Kaede hunching into herself a little.

“Like what, exactly?”

“Just upholding a bet with Akamatsu-san over here.”

Tomoko didn’t like where exactly she was planning on going with this.

“See, before the challenges started, I convinced her to make a bet with me that whichever team ends up in the lead over the other has to give the other a…task to do. Since the Sisters are in first and the Girls are in dead last, I’ve come up with the task that Akamatsu-san has to do.”

“But what about Komaru-san?” Tomoko pointed to the aspiring manga artist. “What does she have to do with this?”

“Oh, she’s just acting as mediator. Making sure Akamatsu-san makes good on our deal.”

“And you can’t because…”

Tomoko stopped when she realised Junko was no longer listening to her. Instead, her face had become emotionless, eyes trained on the bag of nuts in her hand. As Tomoko noticed this, her eyes started moving to all directions around her. She’d spent enough time in the same academy as her to know she was demonstrating her analytical prowess once more, but the reasons for which she couldn’t predict.

Until she grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet.

“Alright, it’s decided. You’re coming with us.”

“What?! I didn’t have anything to do with your dumb bet!”

“True, but your team are second-last. And you know everything about our bet at this point.” Junko reached a hand into the bag of nuts. “Not to mention they may be needing your help with what I have planned.”

“But--” Junko didn’t let her finish, dragging Tomoko alongside her with Komaru, Kaede begrudgingly following behind the three of them. The entire way, Tomoko made attempts to pull away from Junko’s grip, which was far tighter than she’d imagined possible of someone like her, while Kaede only worried about where exactly she was taking them all.

They didn’t have to walk too far though, arriving in an old looking building situated behind the spa hotel. Given its location, it looked incredibly out of place, the function of it unknown either.

“Is this the place then?”

“Yep!”

“And what? Is the building going to collapse halfway through the task in order to make it harder?”

“Nope. All you girls need to do is go in there and find my bra, then bring it back.”

“What’s the catch?” Kaede asked. “Did you put a bear in there?”

“Nope.”

“So…you’re saying that there’s no danger in there of any kind?”

“Of course not! But then again,” she grinned, “I’m sure you ladies will find something else in there. Something a little more…exciting.” She took the bag of nuts out of Tomoko’s hands, starting to eat out of it again. “Fantastical…”

“Uh…okay…we’ll be back in a bit.”

Kaede and Komaru pushed the door open, the lights already on but no other features visible yet, while Tomoko still refused to go in.

“I still don’t understand why you needed _me_ when you have the other two already?”

Junko held a hand to her mouth and laughed. Not like her usual laugh, but the kind of laugh she’d associate with evil despair fetishist Junko. “Don’t you understand, Fukuhara-san? It’s your _destiny_ to go in there. Or don’t you feel the _urge_ deep inside you?”

“U-urge? For what?”

“Oh, never mind. I guess women really don’t share the desires of men…” Junko ate more of the nuts. “Just go in there, or they’ll never find it.”

Now more confused than before, Tomoko turned to the door, eying Junko one last time, before joining the other two girls in the building.

“What urges…?”

…

As it turned out, the building was a spare, abandoned bathhouse. Scattered all over the place were a number of supplies for the spa hotel, the girls could only assume. Tomoko checked in all the boxes while Kaede looked in every other corner, as Komaru sat against one of the sinks, skimming through the photos on her camera.

“Please tell me I’m not the only one who forgot about ditzy Junko during all this time.”

Tomoko and Komaru shook their heads.

“Do you think this is what she got up to at the old Hope’s Peak?”

“There’s no way of knowing for sure, is there? It’s not like you can ask one of her classmates.”

“I always thought someone like Celes-san would be more likely to do something like this, what with being the SHSL Gambler and all.”

“The bet part, or the hiding underwear part?”

“You know what I meant.”

“I…honestly can’t believe we’re having this conversation right now.”

“How do you mean that?”

“Think about it – people like us have had to hide the truth from everyone else since the beginning. Honestly being able to talk about it without censoring any detail is kind of…liberating.”

Both Komaru and Kaede stopped for a moment to ponder this, until Kaede quickly changed the subject, returning her focus back to her task.

“How would she even lose her bra in here in the first place?”

“Well, I’ve looked in all the boxes. Nothing. Well, except…”

“What?”

Tomoko pulled the towel off the cover off of one of the boxes, wincing. The other two looked inside, only to immediately pull back when they noticed its contents.

“Are those…boxers…?”

“Yep.”

“Why would there be boxers in here anyway?”

Almost on cue, loud boisterous laughter sounded from the back room of the building. Loud, _male_ , boisterous laughter.

All three girls looked to the door that none of them had noticed yet, in the corner of the room, nobody moving an inch. They didn’t know exactly what was happening in there, but there was something going on. Something too convenient to allow this scenario to be pure coincidence.

“Komaru-san,” Kaede’s eyes didn’t leave the door, “did Enoshima-san do this on purpose?”

“She never said so…but most likely…”

They fell into silence again, more male voices distantly audible.

“And I can’t see Enoshima-san’s bra in _here_ …so…”

“Okay, no.” Tomoko turned back to the main door. “I don’t know whether or not this was planned, but I’m out! Just because I’m on a guy’s team doesn’t mean I have to act like one.”

She pulled the door handle, only for the door to merely rattle in place. Annoyed, she put a foot on the wall next to it and pulled harder, getting the same result.

She huffed. “If that’s not proof of this being a set-up, I don’t know what is.”

“You’re spot on with that. Look.” A hand-written sign had fallen off the other door, hidden behind another stack of crates: _Bath currently in use – male bonding._

“Even I know they wouldn’t be dumb enough to advertise the specifics of what they’re getting up to in there.”

“Shh!” Komaru’s voice was quieter now. “The door’s open a little! They can probably hear us!”

Listening closer, the girls could pick up on a couple of people in there – Kaito, Shuichi and Makoto among others, so probably exclusive Team Comet bonding.

“We…don’t seriously have to do this, do we?” Kaede gulped.

“But on the bright side, I think I saw a bra through the gap in the door. Looks like it’s hidden behind some more boxes, right by the door.”

“Bright side or no bright side, we’re still going into a bathhouse filled with guys in the middle of a…” Kaede looked at the sign once more, “male bonding session.”

“Alright, tell you what.” The other two turned to face Tomoko. “If it really is that close to the door, all three of us just stick our hand through the gap, since that should hopefully help us find it faster. And the steam should keep them from seeing us. The moment one of us has a hand on it, we leave. Sound good?”

After some deliberation, followed by the realisation that Junko wasn’t going to do a thing until they’d checked the bathhouse, Komaru and Kaede nodded.

“That way, we shouldn’t have to see anything…unsavoury.”

Still not saying a word, they crept closer to the door to the baths, breath bated. Swallowing nervously, once they were close enough, all three girls laid a hand on the door, pushing it open slowly so as not to create any noise. Gradually, a small sliver of what lay beyond became visible, although thanks to the vast amount of steam, visible was a stretch. Once there was enough space, the trio each reached an arm into the bathhouse, hoping one of them would find the bra as soon as possible.

“Any luck?”

“Nope, not yet.”

“Come on, just a little further.”

That was when Kaede made a mistake and poked an eye through the gap, hoping it would help her find the bra easier – and although she ended up spotting it quite close to the door, something else off to the side caught her eye. Something…well, fantastical.

“Well, Akamatsu-san?”

“Any luck?”

“…you…need to see this…”

Tomoko & Komaru stole a glance at Kaede’s face, which was now beet red.

“Uh…what?”

Despite Tomoko’s confusion at Kaede’s change in character, Komaru did so almost immediately, at first not reacting. Emotionally, that is. As her nose slowly began to produce a trail of blood down her face.

“Wha--, Komaru-san! Kaede! Hurry up and grab the damn bra already!”

Neither girl moved, too captivated with the rare sight in front of them.

“Alright, that’s it! I don’t care if I have to break the door down to get out, but we’re leaving! This is just too wrong!”

Tomoko made to put a hand on the back of Kaede’s v-neck, but stopped with her hand hovering slightly above the collar. Where just before she was filled with disgust and abhorrent denial, in its wake was now an overwhelming, unexplained compulsion to do the same as her peers. An inexplicable… _urge_ …

An urge to take full advantage of such a rare situation. A feeling as though this situation was meant to be…like it was her _destiny_ …

“Is…is this what Enoshima-san meant?”

Her heart rate quickening, Tomoko threw all common sense aside and pushed the door open further…

And behind it…

…

…

“Hey, Shuichi! Everything okay over there?”

“Uh, yeah. It’s nothing.”

“Come on, bro! No need to be so embarrassed! It’s just us guys in here!”

“Weren’t other people meant to be here? I thought you invited other teams.”

“Nah, it was always Team Comet exclusively.”

“I…still don’t really feel comfortable doing this?”

“Then why’d you even tag along in the first place, Jay?”

“You underestimate Momota’s determination.”

“Haha! A scenario such as this is ideal for forging and strengthening the bonds between men!”

“You said it, Oowada! Now stop hiding in the corner, Naegi, and let me wash your back for you!”

“Ow! Jeez, you’re being too rough with it!”

“Is it too late to get off this island?”

…

…

After what felt like an eternity, but in reality must have been only five minutes, they left their peeking hole, all three of their faces still red (and Komaru’s nose still bleeding). They took a few seconds to cool off from what they’d witnessed, immediately crashing back to reality when they saw the main door wide open, no fashion girl in sight.

Only an empty bag of nuts sat in the doorway.

* * *

 

Komaru was able to force it out of a highly amused Junko later on that the ‘male bonding session’ between the Comets was her idea, and that she’d never even hidden her bra in the bathhouse in the first place (which still didn’t explain what Komaru thought she’d seen).

Needless to say, dinner was quite awkward that evening, especially for Tomoko, prompting her to sit with the Golden Girls instead of her own teammates. Neither her nor Kaede appeared tremendously hungry, taking to prodding their food every so often.

“It’s weird for Tomoko-chan and Kaede-chan to be so quiet,” Ibuki noted.

Leon had also taken note of Tomoko’s behaviour change. “Hey, Hara, something wrong? You’ve been quiet for most of the day. Again. And you’re at a completely different table.”

“Oh, uh…” she did her best to avoid eye contact with him, “it’s nothing, really. I…I don’t want to talk about it.” She could already feel her face going red again, even though none of her team were involved with the incident.

“Well, whatev.” He held a bag out to her. “Want a nut? Ouma stole a few bags off of--”

“Hard pass.” Tomoko quickly looked away, while Kaede shuddered next to her.

Although Leon noticed the behavioural changes, he didn’t notice the abnormal reaction to the bag of nuts, instead eyes going to Chef.

“Hey, uh, is it normal for Chef to leave the kitchen in the middle of dinner?”

“Not really, no. Why?”

“Because he’s headed straight for our table with a bento box.”

The nine other Huntsmen didn’t appear to have picked up on this yet, instead continuing to force down whatever slop had been dumped onto their trays before, until Ian’s got thrown out of its plate and onto the rest of the team.

“What the hell, Chef?”

“You given up on your own cooking too?”

“Found that in the fridge this mornin’. Some note on top asking to give it to you.”

Leon joined the team crowded round the box and whistled. “After three years, Ian finally has a secret admirer!”

Kiibo, Kokichi and Shinjiro were also intrigued, as were the Total Drama OG members, but Jacques was just confused.

“It’s…just a lunch box.”

“Oh, right. Culture shock.” Although they’d never grown up with this and other customs, former contestants had spent enough time at the Neo Hope’s Peak to get to grips with them, leaving the team member – Shinjiro – most well-versed in the two different cultures to explain things to those out of the loop. “Basically in Japan girls tend to make bentos, or lunchboxes, for the boys they like.”

“Maybe so,” Duncan poked a rice ball with a fork, “but is it even edible? You don’t want a girl who’ll give you food poisoning.”

“Let’s see.” The bento had two layered, and seemed to contain a mixture of Western and Japanese food. There were things like rice balls, _tamagoyaki_ and dried seaweed in some compartments, while other ones had a slider burger, and what looked like a miniature version of a crème caramel.

Ian took a bite out of one of the rice balls, followed by some of the _tamagoyaki_ , then some of the seaweed. A few seconds passed before he started shoving more and more of it into his mouth, beyond the point of savouring it.

“Oh, that’s so good…” he said with his mouth full.

“Good to know you aren’t gonna contract food poisoning on us.”

“And there were no clues as to who they were? No notes or anything?”

“Hate to make assumptions but I have a feeling they’re a Japanese person.”

“Nothing.”

“Granted,” Duncan said, “Chef may be hoarding it if there is one, given what went down with Harold’s love letters to Leshawna in season one.”

“Holy crap, this dessert is even better than the savoury stuff!”

Geoff made a move to take some of the food, only for Ian to snatch the bento and swat his hand away. “Hey. Get your own secret admirer.”

“Hmm…so now the Huntsmen have two objectives…”

The guys (plus Tomoko, who’d overheard chunks of the boys’ dilemma) looked in Leon’s direction.

“Win a challenge for once, and find Ian’s future girlfriend!”


	18. Cooking With Gas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first six teams take part in the cooking challenge.

“Good middle-of-the-day, everyone! Hope you enjoyed your day off – I have a feeling some of you definitely did…”

“Don’t remind me,” Komaru murmured, purposefully avoiding eye contact with Junko.

“But now, our second week of challenges can begin. And I’m happy to announce that this week, the challenges will be following a specific theme, that being…food!”

Owen whooped. “Yes! Awesome!”

“Starting with the cooking challenge from season one. Once again, we have a van fully stocked with any food you may need, as well as some of Chef’s reserves, and anything edible you might find on the island. And once again, you have until six to plan out a three-course menu, then make it. However, I won’t be judging them…that’ll be your job!

“As you may have figured out, it’ll be impossible to fit all twelve of you in the kitchen at the same time, so this challenge will be covering two days. Don’s already divided the teams into two groups – group one will do the challenge today, while a group two team will judge the food, and then the roles will be reversed tomorrow.

“Taking part today will be the Awesome Athletes, Golden Girls, Most Dangerous Sisters, Hammerheads, Team Victory 2.0, and the Immortals. As before, you need a starter, main, and dessert, as well as a drink which won’t be judged.”

“Even so, you still can’t fit six teams in the kitchen,” Brick said.

“That you can’t, which is why one team will get the kitchen, and everyone else gets a designated tent somewhere nearby, with all the equipment you should need. As for who gets the kitchen…Most Dangerous Sisters, since you’re currently in the lead, it’s all yours. Second place Hammerheads are also taking part today, so tomorrow, third place Victorious Secret get ownership of the kitchen.

“Now without any further ado, all participating teams get over here,” Chris held a hat up, “and choose your teams!”

* * *

 

_Awesome Athletes_

“Alright,” the team stayed in the clearing until they’d come up with their menu, “the key to winning this challenge isn’t about making the fanciest food, but the best-tasting. With that in mind, what is everyone here good at making?”

“Back at the police academy I could handle a mean--”

“Pepper-sprayed nachos don’t count, MacArthur.”

“As a lover of donuts, I know how to make my own ones quite well!”

“I guess I can kind of make a beef stew, but I don’t know if it would be good enough for this.”

“I’ve done a bit of cooking back at the orphanage before.”

“Alright, so clearly we have some semblance of experience between us,” Sanders said. “But right now the only ideas we have now are donuts, maybe beef stew, and plain nachos. We can stick to these, but we still need a way to make them more exciting.”

“I wouldn’t mind MacArthur’s pepper spray idea for the nachos!”

“Yeah, but that’s because this is _you_ we’re talking about, Izzy.”

“Okay then…I guess some kind of hot salsa?”

“Sounds good!”

“These ideas are all well and good, but can we even pull them off? I mean, it’s not like they’re overly difficult to make, but have you seen who we’re supposed to be catering for?”

The rest of the team looked at the yellow slip of paper in Sky’s hand – Atua’s Followers.

“Okay, so that’s Tenko, Himiko, Zoey, Laurie…Miles…”

“Well, crap.”

Everyone paused to consider the possibility of making vegan variants of each dish, coming up short without drastically changing the menu.

“We’ll…think of something.”

…

_Golden Girls_

The girls assembled outside the truck, getting a good look at what was available for them to use. After a few minutes of silent analysis, Leshawna snapped her fingers. “I think we could pull off a cool tropical themed meal. We have plenty of mangoes and pineapples in here, so I could make my chutney!”

“Aren’t you allergic to pineapple?”

“Ever heard of gloves?”

“Okay then,” Miku decided to take the lead on the project, much to everyone’s relief, else Josee may have been a repeat of head-chef Heather. Not that anyone was deterred by the thought of locking the Ice Queen in the freezer. “I’ll leave the starter to you. Just find something we can use to dip into it.”

“We’re catering for the Neo Amazons, so there shouldn’t be any major hindrances in terms of what we can and can’t use.”

“In that case, maybe meat skewers for the main. Obviously with some kind of seasoning on it.”

“Is anyone here good at making dessert?” Sayaka asked.

“You can leave the dessert to me. Everyone else, break off into whichever group you’re best in. We’ll work out the drink closer to the end.”

…

_Most Dangerous Sisters_

“So we have it all planned out.” Komaru read the list of the team’s ideas off of a scrap of paper. “Fishcakes, bacon burger, brownies, and then coffee for the drink. We’re cooking for Team Comet, so the burger should get us some bonus points if things go wrong!”

The team entered the kitchen and dumped their chosen supplies onto one of the counters, where Scarlett proceeded to separate it all into each course.

“Most of these seem relatively easy, so let’s start off with a practice round for everything. Anyone here have any particular knowledge about cooking?”

“I’m not much of a cook, but I have learned a significant amount about the culinary arts. Therefore, I will be willing to lend my services on one of the stations!” Sonia was incredibly enthusiastic to get involved.

“While I see no need for someone like me to be able to cook,” Celeste began, “I have quite a penchant for realising quality.”

“Okay then, I guess that puts Celes-san in the role of head chef.”

“In that case, I would put Toko, Junko and Mikan on the starter. Chiaki, Komaru and Scarlett can handle the…burger…Jen, Dakota and Sonia can make the dessert. I’m sure you’re all more than capable of making any suitable additions for yourself, so long as they meet my personal standards.”

“Even though it isn’t for you…”

…

_Hammerheads_

Alejandro had immediately taken note of his team’s strengths and incorporated them into the Hammerheads’ menu, not even letting the others get their own ideas in.

“Cameron, if I recall, your mushroom quiche went down a treat in season four. Any chance you could replicate it?”

“Absolutely! Not to mention the taste should be vastly superior with real mushrooms in comparison to the toxic ones.”

“Rantaro, being quite a well-travelled man, surely you know a fair share of foreign specialties?”

“I do, although I’d rather wait and see what else we come up with before contributing anything.”

Topher raised a hand. “I know Chris _said_ he isn’t judging the food, but we should probably prepare for a change in the rules and throw in at least one thing Chris likes.”

“And since you’re our resident Chris expert, what would you suggest?”

“Normally tomato juice, but not many of the other players would like it. I know he likes cheesecake. No particular flavour.”

“Ah, I have an idea now.” Rantaro spoke up. “Have any of you ever heard of a drink called Spezi, or Cola Mix? It’s a popular German drink, which is basically cola mixed with orange soda. It’s easy enough to put together, and the team we have should like it.”

“Interesting. In that case, I suggest we go for something of an international theme. Cameron, Mike, Devin and Gonta can handle the quiche. Topher, you work on a cheesecake that matches the theme, with Tom, Cody and Rodney. Junior, Rantaro and Trent, you can help me create tapas for our main.”

…

_Team Victory 2.0_

Team leader the Imposter, caring the most about food, chose to fill the head chef role. “Right. As I suspected, outside of Harold, our team’s collective cooking experience is close to zero.”

Rock raised a hand.

“Outside of instant ramen.”

The hand went back down.

“If that’s how it is, we’ll just have to keep things incredibly simple. I assume something like potatoes and sausages aren’t beyond your capabilities?”

The group of other players exchanged glances before nodding.

“Good. I think something like takoyaki would be beneficial as a starter. Mitarai and I can take care of that. Now, can any of you make something that can be used as a dessert?”

Lorenzo raised a hand. “I mean, I like churros!”

“Yes, that’s all well and good, but can you make them?”

He thought about this. “I can try?”

The Imposter sighed. “Alright then. That idea’s better than nothing. Harold can lend a hand with that. Everyone else…just, pick whichever station you want.”

“When exactly are we starting this?” Dave asked. “Aren’t we having our food judged at six?”

“Given…some of you, we’ll have to spend some time practicing beforehand.”

“Come on. It’s just throwing potatoes and sausages onto the grill. How hard can it--”

“No. Don’t even go there.”

…

_The Immortals_

As much as the Immortals’ team leader wanted to take control, everyone agreed that Teruteru had to lead the challenge. They left the menu planning, the ingredients, and the delegation entirely to him, lest one of them royally screw it all up.

“All done! No matter who we’re serving our menu too, we shouldn’t have to worry about falling behind. As the SHSL Chef, I can give even the simplest foods an exquisite flavour! I suggest we serve simple meat skewers as a starter. The Golden Girls appear to have a similar idea, so our flavouring will be different. For the main, we’ll have my famous Versailles-style _queue de boeuf_. Finally, a crème brûlée for dessert.”

“Wow. I guess we really aren’t needed here.”

“Of course not! While you may not have the levels of experience I do, I don’t doubt that you have something. Therefore, whichever flavours you want to use for the starter and main, I’ll leave the ideas for that to you.”

Hifumi didn’t seem to share the sentiments. “How do you know one of our decisions won’t mess up your entire plan?”

“Because with me as the head chef, I will ensure everything we serves not only looks perfection, but _tastes_ perfection!”

Beardo nudged another of his teammates. “For someone who acts in such a perverted way, I gotta say…his behaviour today…is a pleasant change.”

“Darn right.”

…

For the next few hours, with each team’s menu cleared up, the majority of the teams had plenty of time to practice.

Team Victory 2.0 let the first few potatoes overcook slightly.

Most Dangerous Sisters brought multiple batches of brownies out of the oven, all of which were immediately consumed by the team (except Celeste, looking on in mild disappointment).

The Awesome Athletes made sure to split the vegan foods from the rest of their ingredients.

The Immortals were surprisingly fast to learn from Teruteru, to the point where any doubt the SHSL Chef had had vanished.

The Hammerheads almost completely cleared out the remnants of the food truck in order to fill their tapas plates.

And the Golden Girls were finally able to fully see eye-to-eye in an attempt to escape from last place.

…

_Awesome Athletes_

The early problem of making a vegan variant of their menu was quickly resolved as Sanders delegated each of the stations. The nachos starter was over and done with in mere minutes and set to the side, leaving only four stations to sort out – main and dessert, vegan variant main and vegan variant dessert. Since the supplies they were offered didn’t enable them to even attempt vegan donuts, they settled on a vegan parfait for one of the desserts.

“How does this work again?”

“I think you make the cream with soya milk or something, then decorate the dish with fruit as usual.”

“Okay. That part may take a while, but I think I can manage.”

“How’re you two doing on the vegan version of the main?” Sky asked Izzy and Eva.

“Tell you what,” Eva said, visibly frustrated by the challenge, “why don’t _you_ try making a _vegan_ version of _beef stew_ and tell me how _you_ get on with that?!”

“Woah, woah, Eva! Didn’t you hear what Sanders said?” Izzy came over carrying a large bag of rice. “We’ve changed it to curry rice!”

“Doesn’t that still have meat in it?”

“Not our version! Now quit moping and get back to it!” She dumped the bag hard onto the counter, the impact causing part of the bag to split and some of the rice to leak out. Izzy laughed nervously as Eva shot a look at her, while the rest of the players worked on the non-vegan versions of their food.

“Our first lot of donuts are almost done! How many should we have per person?”

“Just make as many as possible. Peko and I can add the fillings afterwards. We’ll just put them all on a plate and let them pick them off.”

“Okay then!”

On her new station, MacArthur looked at the curry gradually coming together. “How can you even call this curry? It’s nothing like what it is over here!”

“So? Aren’t there lots of things different between things here and in Japan?” Mukuro took no notice of her complaints, continuing to cut up the meat.

While waiting for the donuts to be finished, Sanders looked around at the food at each station coming together.

“You know, I think we’re doing great so far!”

“I can’t speak for the other teams’ progress, but I feel we really have a chance in this challenge.”

…

_Most Dangerous Sisters_

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for another team.

If there was one team that could afford to mess up monumentally, it was this one. One, because they were in the top few by a healthy margin; and two, they had a kitchen, so burning some of their food wouldn’t cause their site to burn down. Only disgust their head chef.

“What exactly happened in here?”

“We’re in trouble! The fishcakes burnt!”

“I thought Tsumiki was meant to be watching the f-food!”

“Eeee! I-I’m sorry!”

“Do you have time to cook any more?”

“Do you think we’d be panicking like this i-if we did?”

Celeste looked on the edge of a full-on meltdown at her team, but was fortunately able to regain her composure. “If that’s the case, I wouldn’t bother even starting a new batch. It’s pointless if we can’t serve the best quality food. Everyone else will have to double their efforts on the rest of the dishes, in order to increase our chances in those fronts.”

“T-that might just w-work out for us!”

“ _Now then_ , as to who was responsible for our potential failure…”

…

_Golden Girls_

“Meat skewers, check. Chutney dip, check. Virgin piña coladas, check. Miku, you said to leave the desserts to you. How are they coming along?”

“We’re dealing with ice cream here. I can’t just make it now!”

“You never said we were making ice cream from scratch.”

“I know. And it isn’t just ice cream. Check the freezer.”

The rest of the girls crowded around Leshawna as she opened the door. On the top shelf was a small tub of what looked like orange tubes.

“Is that…rolled ice cream?”

“And you made that from scratch?”

“Yep! Rolled mango sorbet! Give it a try.”

Each of the team grabbed a spoon and took a bite out of each of the rolls. One by one, their faces lit up at the taste.

“This is…amazing!”

“How’d you even manage to do that?”

“You’re like the Ruruka of ice cream!”

“Hm. We may have a chance of winning with food like this.”

Miku went red behind them all, clearly chuffed at the comments. “Well, uh, it isn’t just ice cream. People say I’m good at making desserts in general.”

“It’s decided! Next time we get access to the kitchen, you’re making something for us all!”

“Uh, you do realise our trailer has a mini kitchen?”

“I mean, if you really want…”

_My team may not really get along yet, but at least now I’ve given them_ one _thing to agree on!_

* * *

 

As six o’ clock rolled around, the other six teams filed into the mess hall, sitting at their allocated tables. Atop each one sat a sheet of paper with the competing teams’ menus written on them. Once everyone was in, Chris blew his signature airhorn outside.

“Times up! All the other players are waiting in the mess hall for their food, so you guys better start plating up your food now!”

…

_Awesome Athletes – judged by Atua’s Followers Nachos w/ spicy salsa ~ Curry rice/vegan curry ~ Donut platter/vegan parfait ~ Vanilla milkshake_

“I should have known Hina would know her way around a donut – these are good.”

“The curry’s…interesting. It’s not what I was expecting.”

“Japanese curry is made differently to how it is in the West.”

“It isn’t bad, but I’m not a fan.”

“Well if you ain’t gonna eat it…” Akane dumped Zoey’s leftovers onto her own plate.

“Laurie, Miles, how’s yours?”

“Yeah, these taste great.”

“It’s nice to see they still put the effort into ours.”

…

_Golden Girls – judged by Neo Amazons Pineapple chutney w/ mango slices ~ Tropical meat skewers ~ Rolled mango ice cream ~ Virgin pi_ _ñ_ _a colada_

“I don’t care who the team is – if Chris is expecting us to do his job for him, what we’re being served better be worth it. And if we have Leshawna’s team serving for my team, it probably won’t be.”

“Calm down, Heather. It doesn’t look too bad.”

“I think the tastes _should_ live up to your standards. Especially this ice cream!”

“I’ve seen them make these online – whoever made these ones, is awesome!”

“Shouldn’t you be focusing on the starter and main _before_ the dessert?”

Stationed outside one of the mess hall’s windows were a couple of members of the Golden Girls, gauging their reactions to the food. While Miku was blushing once more at the team liking her dessert, Leshawna was instead disappointed in herself.

“Ah, man. I knew I should have done something to Heather’s plate.”

…

_MDS – judged by Team Comet ~~Fishcakes~~ ~ Bacon burger ~ Triple chocolate brownies ~ Black coffee_

“No starter?”

To serve as punishment for what was apparently her error, Celeste forced Mikan to take the food to Team Comet alone and explain herself as to why there were no fishcakes. Naturally, the nurse was on the edge of a breakdown.

“U-uh…w-we left them in the over for too l-long, and they got too burnt to serve…I’m sorry!”

“Hey, it’s no problem,” Kaito assured her, mouth full. “At the very least, the burger tastes great!”

“Honestly if you still have them, I doubt Owen would complain if you brought them out.” Said food lover had to be held back from taking too much until the others had their fill.

“S-so…it’s good?”

“Well, yeah! Would we still be eating if it wasn’t?”

“I mean you’re probably still gonna be in last since you can only score twenty at most--”

“Oowada-kun, I don’t think you’re helping,” Chihiro whispered, as Mondo’s comment caused Mikan to start wailing over damaging her team’s chances.

…

_Hammerheads – judged by the Huntsmen Tapas platter ~ Mushroom quiche ~ Key Lime cheesecake ~ Cola Mix_

“So technically speaking…if the Hammerheads are the leading guy’s team, that makes them our biggest competition, right?” Although DJ was the leader, Duncan was more fixated than him on coming out on top.

“That would imply we were even which, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, we really aren’t.”

“The point I’m making, we got lucky here. With their food, we know what we have to beat. And from how simple all this looks, it can’t be that great.”

He picked up a small croquette from the starter tray, chewing on it a few times, as the rest of the team awaited his verdict.

“Okay, clearly that was done by Alejandro who’s good at everything, but maybe the quiche is worse.”

“Duncan, don’t go there. We already know it’s all gonna be good.”

“I mean it’s good, but it’s not perfect. Al’s lost his edge.”

“As if. Probably just the rest of the team dragging him down.”

…

_Team Victory 2.0 – judged by Victorious Secret Takoyaki ~ Grilled potatoes and sausages ~ Chocolate churros ~ Cola_

For a moment, the girls didn’t touch the food in front of them, instead wondering how exactly the likes of Team Victory 2.0 had managed to cook this up. Other than the greasiness of the takoyaki, a small amount of burning on the potato, and the churros leaking, it looked edible. The other downside being the fact they’d only made enough for two at best.

“Those losers made this?”

“It looks…far better than I expected it to.”

“To be fair, I was expecting instant noodles.”

Anne Maria was the first to eat something. “Huh, it ain’t half bad.”

The rest of the girls followed suit, all seeming to share the sentiments.

“The potato tastes a little like carbon, but on the whole it doesn’t detract from the overall starchiness.”

“Yeah, you can tell how burnt it got.”

“Quit yer grumblin’! Long as I can eat it, I’m takin’ it!”

While the others simply had a mouthful of everything to judge it, Sugar had no issues with shovelling down everything they’d left behind.

“At least they’ll be happy to know _someone_ ’s willing to go for seconds.”

…

_The Immortals – judged by Lightning Squad Meat skewers ~ Versailles-style queue de boeuf ~ Vanilla bean crème br_ _û_ _l_ _é_ _e ~ Carbonated water_

Not matching the nature of the menu they’d been given, the team had shovelled down all the food in front of them, not leaving even a single crumb.

“The people like Hifumi, Beardo and Leonard made this?”

“Nah, Teruteru had to have been behind all of it.”

“So this is _real_ rich person’s food…”

“As expected of the SHSL Chef!”

The whole time, the less qualified members of the team watched their judges through the mess hall window.

“Well, well, looks like we have a winner.”

…

“Alright, I think it goes without saying that the Immortals won this round of the challenge, with twenty-nine points out of thirty! Since only six teams are taking part in each round, this time, the point allocations go from six, down to one. Immortals, you get six points!

“In second-place and receiving five points, thanks to their perfectly-graded dessert, are the Golden Girls, with twenty-seven! Third place, receiving four points, are the Hammerheads, having been scored twenty-four out of thirty. Awesome Athletes come in fourth, Team Victory 2.0 are fifth, and last week’s victors, Most Dangerous Sisters, finish in last place. But hey, look at it this way, none of your food was considered bad as such. Hell, the worst score was seventeen!”

“Well, at least it wasn’t bad!” Komaru attempted to alleviate her team’s disappointment, to no avail. The girls were still disgruntled, and Mikan still cowered under Celeste’s composed anger.

“Nice job, Miku!” Kitty high-fived her leader. “Second place!”

“But five points won’t really make much of a difference. No matter how tomorrow turns out, we’re still almost guaranteed a spot in the bottom three.”

“Ever the optimist, huh, Josee?”

“Look at it this way – it’s our first great performance, so consider it a sign of things to come!”

Chris interrupted the discussion. “Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night. Judges, you can all head back now. As for today’s chefs, hope you like pizza!”

* * *

 

By midnight, the majority of the participants and non-contestants were fast asleep, sans a handful of the Future Foundation leaders.

Stood out by the docks, flashlights in hand, were Kyosuke, Kizakura and Chisa, looking out across the lake.

Chisa checked her watch. “When are we expecting them all? It’s getting a little cold out here.”

“The boat’s left the mainland. They should hopefully reach the island within fifteen minutes. Dogami’s informed me of each member’s clearance, so all we need to do is move them in. The rest can be sorted in the morning.”

“Why couldn’t they have simply arrived by helicopter?”

“Nah, too risky.” Kizakura swigged some of his whiskey. “Don’t wanna wake the kids up. They’re excited enough about the new season. How many we expectin’ anyway?”

“Twenty. That should be enough to prevent another disaster.”

The three stood in silence for a moment, watching the horizon for the sign of a boat, seeing a feint light in the distance. Chisa eventually looked back to Kyosuke.

“How did something like this even happen? Is there another traitor scenario?”

Kyosuke uncharacteristically shifted in nervousness. “I’m not sure yet. It’s a possibility, however. I don’t really see how, given everyone’s been under constant supervision at the Neo Hope’s Peak, and I don’t see how the Total Drama players would get involved.”

“Yeah, but don’t forget those 79th Class kids,” Kizakura added. “They’ve been awfully secretive about their experiences.”

“I haven’t forgotten. Needless to say, we’ll need to keep a closer eye on any suspicious behaviour, from all parties. With or without a traitor, thirteen out of fourteen Future Foundation leaders are together and away from the headquarters. This creates golden opportunities for any enemies to launch an attack – here, or there.”

Again, they went a few more minutes in silence, leaving the conversation as is, until the boat of Future Foundation members pulled up. As told by Kyosuke, on board were twenty middle-ranking members – high enough so they’d be able to defend against any kind of issue, yet low enough so they wouldn’t be missed by the rest of the members at the headquarters. Kyosuke waited until all twenty of them were off the boat before addressing them.

“Welcome, everyone, to Pahkitew Island. We’re currently in the middle of a ten-week long competition here, and as you may know already, it only took a couple of days for things to go wrong. There were already three members of the Foundation in your new position, yet one of them was found deceased on the island. By a former Despair victim, nonetheless. We’re branding this the actions of a traitor until further evidence comes through. While you’re here, your job is simple – safeguard this island, and stop the same thing happening a second time. Because of the levels of discretion required for this operation, you will be housed separate from everyone else. Any important meetings will take place at _your_ living quarters, and any important communications will come directly from me. Everything else about this operation will be explained in depth tomorrow morning. For tonight, settle in and get some rest.”

Kyosuke and Kizakura led the group towards the woods, but one member of the group instead returned to the boat.

“Hm? Is there something wrong?”

“Sorry about that.” The member, a young woman, emerged from the boat once more, this time rolling a white suitcase behind her. “Just didn’t think you’d want him to overhear all the confidential stuff.”

“Him?”

Confused at her statement, Chisa looked into the boat’s interior. Other than some crates of supplies, it was mostly empty. Other than the surprise guest sat on a chair right at the back of the boat, a small rucksack resting on his lap.

“Oh my…this is unexpected!”


	19. Bigger Fish to Fry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The remaining teams compete in the cooking challenge, and Tomoko finally has some good news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can tell reading this which team(s) I care the least for.

_Team Comet_

“Hey, whaddaya know? They cooked for us yesterday, now we cook for them!”

“MDS?”

“Yep. Now to figure out what to do.”

Jay had the first idea. “The best ones yesterday all followed a theme, so we should do the same thing. Didn’t the original series do an Italian theme?”

“Yeah, but we can’t copy the menu verbatim.”

“And we won’t,” Kaito said. “There’s way more Italian food than pasta!”

Despite the clear theme idea, the team weren’t that certain about how to put their menu together. “We got that, but Italian food isn’t the most simple to make.”

“You’re overthinking it,” Shawn spoke up. “Since when is pizza difficult?”

“Are you suggesting it’ll be pizza to start, pizza as a main, and then some kind of chocolate pizza at the end?”

“Well…it doesn’t sound bad to me, but not in this case.”

“I’d say we have another hour to brainstorm ideas, so there’s no rush. Also this time we have our phones, so at least we can look up recipes online.”

“Alrighty then! Let’s get planning!”

…

_The Huntsmen_

Out of all the teams, the Huntsmen were probably the fastest to come up with their menu idea. Instead of a group effort, individual people came up with their own ones, with Tomoko’s being the favourite. With all their supplies gathered, the team leaned over the list of foods.

“I’m cool with the whole Japanese theme, but can someone please explain what a _taiyaki_ is?”

“Put simply, it’s a fish waffle.”

“For…dessert?”

“It’s _shaped_ like a fish. The filling’s chocolate usually.”

“Also, sushi for the main? It may take a while to put together, but at the very least, we can do this super early and worry about the harder stuff later!”

Geoff got everyone’s attention away from the menu for a moment. “Hold on, what about the head chef position? It was me last time, so someone else better give it a try.”

“I’d say go for someone who can’t cook the best, but still knows what they’re doing. That way all the better talent goes into the food. Any volunteers?”

Ian being the first to raise a hand, the decision was made quickly enough.

“Okay then! So, where do we start?”

…

_Lightning Squad_

The only person on the team with a fitting knowledge of cooking turned out to be Hajime, who was automatically pushed into the head chef role because of this. He looked out at the rest of the team, none of whom had any clue as to what to do.

“Clearly, none of you are likely to be able to make anything complex, so I guess we’ll just have to make do with the limited foods we have access to. Anyone have an idea of what we can do for each course?”

“I found one of those fancy cheeses in a box. We can just heat that up and stick it on a plate with some bread.”

“Yeah, alright, that sounds good. Mains?”

Ryan was first to offer an idea. “I know how to make carbonara. That should be simple enough.”

“Okay, that’s great! Right, uh, dessert…I think a mud pie would be relatively simple. Anyone feel like doing that?”

“I’ll take care of the dessert myself,” Scott volunteered. “Believe me, I know what I’m doing.”

Hajime gave him a look, before relenting. “Well clearly no one else objects, so why not? Just don’t screw it up.”

“And for the drink,” Tyler butted in, “you can’t beat protein coffee!”

“Only if you’re you,” Fuyuhiko remarked. “Or Lightning, Ryan, and basically the entire team.”

…

_Neo Amazons_

The girls had been quick to rely on Kirumi to lead the way for this challenge – partially for her expertise in this area, but mainly to give her a break from doing all the heavy lifting herself. The maid easily came up with the dishes for the rest of the team to create.

“Hiyoko and Stephanie, as the self-proclaimed worst at cooking out of the group, I have stationed the pair of you on the easiest of the three courses – the starter of eggs benedict. Jasmine shall be with them, but I also require your strength for gathering extra ingredients from the food truck. Ella, Crimson, Heather – I would like for the three of you to prepare pan-fried sea bass. Heather’s eye for perfection will prove most useful when cooking it. Finally, Carrie, Sammy and Mahiru will make the dessert of crème caramel. Is everyone alright with their positions?”

The other nine girls nodded their approval.

“Should anyone require assistance with anything, do not hesitate to ask me, and I shall do my utmost to ensure our team wins.”

“Don’t feel like you have to do everything for us, by the way.” Mahiru reassured her. “This is a team effort, so we’ll all work together on it, okay?”

“If that is what you desire.”

“This all sounds incredibly complex. Can we really pull it off?”

“Of course we can!”

“If we want to win, we better.”

“Still a real ray of sunshine even _after_ engagement.”

…

_Atua’s Followers_

“Okay, so there may be a _few_ problems with our menu.”

It had been Zoey who put forward the ideas the team had selected, but already one of the three were out of the question for the pair of vegans – the grilled chicken main.

“Then, what are we supposed to do?”

Dawn was quick to come to a solution. “Someone go back to the truck, and replace the oil with vegetable oil. That way, Laurie and Miles can handle the starter.”

“I’m on it!” Akane ran full speed towards the truck, returning in a matter of seconds with the bottle in question.

“Everyone else, choose between the chicken or the roll cake.”

With the biggest obstacle overcome, the team appeared to get into the swing of things quickly enough.

…

_Victorious Secret_

Perhaps the most surprising team in terms of their progress into the challenge, were the third place Victorious Secret. Having ownership of the kitchen probably helped things, but then again they did also have a few ideas they could work with.

“I get the salad part, it’s simple enough,” Beth had taken the lead once more and looked over what everyone was planning. “And the bubble tea sounds fun. But Katie & Sadie, Tsumugi, I still don’t understand what exactly you’re doing.”

Katie and Sadie both smiled at their leader. “We used to make and sell our own homemade ice cream by the pier during the summer, and we still do that now!”

“We thought we’d be able to make our most popular flavour for this challenge – it’s called the Spumindi Lauper.”

“But what’s in it?”

“Our secret.” They both returned to work, as Beth moved on to inspecting Tsumugi’s bench. Sat on top of it was a box of eggs, rice, soy sauce, and a whole load of other things Beth couldn’t figure out.

“And what’s all this for?”

“Chicken Egg Tempura Don. Basically, you deep-fry a frozen egg in tempura batter, then serve it over a bowl of rice with soy sauce.”

“ _Basically_?!”

“As seen on Food Wars.”

None of her teammates seemed surprised by the last part.

“It’s first-year Shinjiro all over again.”

…

As the hours went on, the six teams were met with varying degrees of progress.

Atua’s Followers were forced to rethink the way they prepared their dessert when the roll cake collapsed in the oven.

Team Comet had managed to get their heads around the more complex foods, but were yet to actually agree on the toppings for their pizza.

The Neo Amazons proved to be doing well enough without Kirumi’s assistance, yet still allowed her to step in every so often.

Surprisingly, Victorious Secret were able to work through their courses in perfect harmony, putting aside Sugar’s attempts to get some early bites in.

Lightning Squad ruined their first cheese, burnt the ham for the carbonara, and Scott was nowhere to be found with their mud pie.

And the Huntsmen, thanks to the nature of the foods they were dealing with, managed to finish off the starter and main with time to spare.

…

_The Huntsmen_

About forty-minutes to spare, to be precise. This time was spent clearing everything up so they wouldn’t be forced to later, and drinking some of the extra ramune that was discovered in the back of the truck.

“I can’t believe we actually did it. Heck, we might just have a chance of winning this time!”

“Ugh, don’t jinx it!”

“All that’s left now is to plate all of this up for real and keep checking on the _taiyaki_. Other than that, we’re in a good enough position right now.”

The team then got to work on dividing their first two courses into eleven, with Tomoko crouching in front of the oven, in order to better monitor the _taiyaki_. With five minutes passing with no changes, she noticed someone stood outside the tent door by their reflection in the oven door, the main feature giving them away being their lilac purple plait in their hair.

Checking to make sure her teammates were distracted by the challenge, Tomoko snuck out to meet Kyoko, her usual notebook in hand. _Un_ usually, she seemed slightly distracted.

“Kirigiri-san? I’m guessing you need me for something again?”

“Not me. Someone else wants to speak with you in the clearing for a moment. Your team seem like you’re doing well enough at the moment, so I assume you have the time?”

Maybe she was imagining things, but Tomoko would have sworn there was the subtle remnant of a smile on her face.

Before walking away, she dropped her volume. “It’s not about…that event, right?”

“No. It’s nothing to be worried about.”

“Okay then,” Tomoko made her way to the main meeting area, between the spa hotel, trailers and lux cabins. The only people in sight were all other players not taking part, obviously. Nobody even acknowledged her, indicating it was none of them Kyoko was talking about – meaning the person looking for her was a lie, or this was supposed to be an incredibly secret conversation.

Following a few more seconds with no further signs of the person, Tomoko’s attention was drawn towards the spa hotel when she felt a larger stone connect with the back of her head. A closer look drew her to a hand waving her from behind the wall. Again, making sure no one would follow her, she ran towards the back of the spa hotel.

And was fairly surprised when she saw a person waiting for her who she’d never expected to have to encounter again. A certain robotics student.

“Shi-san?”

The girl’s blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail as before, and her attire looked oddly…formal. She had a white blouse with sleeves ending at her elbows, and a black skirt, the warm smile she’d seen once before also making a return.

“Hi, Fukuhara-san.”

“What are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story, but there’s a lot I felt I had to tell you. Also, sorry about the stone throwing. It’s not like I could just walk up.”

“Why…?”

“Like I said, I’ll get to it.”

“Well would you mind getting on with it? Don’t mean to be rude, but I have a challenge to get back to.”

“Sorry, sorry. Okay then, where to begin?” Tomoko could tell there was a fair amount on her mind. Probably not as much as on hers, but still. “I guess a good place to start…right, remember what happened on that night? At the café?”

“Don’t need a reminder.”

“I’m guessing you’re wondering what was going on with me and that other woman. How do I put this…”

“That woman is actually the new leader of the SHSL Despair organisation and you’re a member of Future Foundation tasked with finding and killing her?”

Shi looked surprised at first, only to replace that look with a light smile. “Guess Kirigiri-san really _did_ tell you everything. Yes, the leader of the Neo Remnants, Shiori Kurokami. And the reason why I was there…the truth is, yes, I’m actually an intern for Future Foundation. Mainly working for Branch 7 because of the robotics thing. And before you ask how the gun factors in, new protocol. After all the shit that went down with the Tragedy’s resurgence, they wanted every member to be able to defend themselves in some way.”

“I was right about the Future Foundation bit?! Well, okay then.”

“As for why I’m here, they asked a few lower-ranking members to station themselves on the island during the Trials, to look out for any suspect behaviour like--”

“Like corpses being found on the toilet?”

A silence descended between the girls.

“So you were a witness.”

“Unfortunately. Now is that everything? Or do you have more Foundation exposition for me?”

“No, I actually do have good news. Although, I guess Oowada-kun told you already.”

Tomoko had to think back for this. “What, about Harvard? Hold on, so that _was_ real? Then, that means…”

“Yep. I managed to save Ishimaru-kun. It took a few hours to track down those Neo Remnants…and even then, Munakata-san will probably have me personally executed if he finds out I couldn’t so much as touch them, but at the very least, I managed to get him to his Harvard interview and he got in! He did tell you he had an interview, right?”

“I mean, he never got to that part when we met up, but he was planning on it.” Tomoko suddenly remembered something else from that night. “Oh, how’s his head? Any better now?”

“You can ask him that yourself. Although he doesn’t want to take part, he’s staying with the group of non-contestants. They’ve already seen him again, but only Kirigiri-san knows the truth about what happened.”

“And what about you? Guessing you’re one of those people staying for surveillance purposes?”

“No, although I was invited for the safeguarding stuff. I’m only here for the rest of the week to help Ishimaru-kun deal with all the questioning about all this.”

Tomoko leaned against the wall. “At least after the body discovery and getting shot, something went right.”

“Wait, you got shot?!”

“While you were chasing down that guy with the sling in the black van.”

Shi suddenly smacked a hand hard against her head. “Damnit, I thought I heard you! I’m so sorry about that!”

“Hey, there were more important things to be dealing with at that time, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right. Still, you’re doing okay now?”

“More so now that something’s gone right for a change,” Tomoko smiled at the other intern. “Is that everything?”

“I think so. And although we probably won’t see that much of each other, I just hope we can get along.”

“Sure, I’d like that.”

Tomoko was about to ask more about the Future Foundation members on the island, but was cut off by her new ally.

“Hey, is that smoke over there?” Shi pointed at a spot in the woods behind Tomoko, from which a tall cloud of dark smoke was emitting.

“Yikes, who’s cooking over there?”

…

_Lightning Squad_

The Squad’s kitchen tent was in utter chaos.

While cooking the meat to go into their carbonara, the pan had been left unattended for too long, starting a miniature fire and burning a hole through the roof of the tent. The pasta ended up far too soft and pudgy for the same reason. Even the camembert, which only required a slight amount of cooking, ended up burning along the bottom. The only thing which _looked_ decent was the protein coffee since, well, that was most of that team’s area of expertise.

With limited time left, Tyler ran around the tent with a fire extinguisher while Ryan hurried to shove the burnt bacon into the pasta. Everyone else did their best to organise enough bowls for the challenge, until Hajime got a closer look at all of the food.

“Hopefully we can get away with the carbonara…the starter might just make it through if the team doesn’t get to the burnt bits – ah, the bread was supposed to be toasted!…no issue with the coffee…” he then noticed Scott’s contribution.

“Scott! I thought you said you knew what you were doing!”

His dessert looked normal enough, despite the overly messy presentation and the brown topping leaking onto the floor.

“What _is_ that? And when did you even put that together? I never saw you using the oven.”

“I got this finished almost an hour ago. The way I made it, you don’t need to cook it.”

“But…” he sniffed the air around it, “I’m not picking up any chocolate in it.”

“Look, I did exactly what you told me to do! A Mississippi mud pie.”

Hajime looked down at the pie in Scott’s hands, smelt the air once more, then caught the earthy undertones of the pie’s scent. He met the dirt farmer’s eyes with disgust. “Scott…you didn’t…”

The familiar sound of the airhorn resounded over the island, signalling the end of the challenge. And not one of the team was relieved by this fact.

“Scott, we are _not_ serving this for the challenge.”

Despite his protesting, Brick surprisingly disagreed with Hajime. “But what choice do we have? Wouldn’t it be better to try and get at least one point _with_ crappy food, than intentionally sacrifice a point _without_ it?”

Hajime retorted quickly. “Alejandro’s team wouldn’t even _consider_ giving that one point!”

“Well I grew up eating this _crappy food_. I’d give it a ten!”

“Hold on.”

The argument dissipated thanks to Jo’s intervention.

“Did you say _Alejandro’s_ team?”

“Yeah. We’ve been cooking for the Hammerheads.”

“In that case…”

* * *

 

_Team Comet – judged by Most Dangerous Sisters  
Calamari & garlic bread ~ Pizza ~ Zeppole ~ Water_

“Hey, they judged us yesterday, and now we’re judging them!”

While the majority of the girls were already getting through the food in front of them, Celeste was eying it all with her usual disapproval.

“I have never been one for pizza, but I cannot place what flavour this one is supposed to be.”

“It looks like they just took whichever toppings everyone wanted and dumped them on top with no consideration.”

Chiaki took a bite out of it. “And it tastes like it too.”

“Not good?”

The gamer shook her head and set the rest of the slice down.

“At least everything else is…good enough.”

“Come on, Celes-san,” Junko nudged her. “Just one bite.”

“If your analytical skills were anywhere near as impressive as you led us to believe, you would know my position on such foods.”

“Sure thing, Ms Gyoza.”

…

_The Huntsmen – judged by Team Victory 2.0  
Popcorn shrimp ~ Sushi platter with Japanese-style fries ~ Taiyaki ~ Ramune_

“What exactly makes the fries Japanese style?”

“It’s just the seasoning they used for them.”

“Gotta say, if this is an attempt to convince me to start eating Japanese food, I’m sold!”

As the resident expert on food, the Imposter was eating more of it in order to get a better idea of how it turned out. “It certainly is good, but not perfect.”

“You know, if they keep up this kind of performance for the rest of the game, they might just end up winning.”

From the signature hiding spot by the mess hall window, DJ and Duncan shared a fist bump.

…

_Neo Amazons – judged by Golden Girls  
Eggs benedict ~ Pan fried sea bass ~ Crème caramel ~ Royal milk tea_

Before even starting to dig into their plates, the team had a feeling they’d like it. Perfect presentation, sweet aroma…

“Celeste wishes she could be served this!”

“Well…appearances can be deceiving.” Josee wasn’t buying into it.

“You aren’t seriously going to try and mark them down on purpose?”

“You do realise how many enemies that would make us? I mean you?”

“Please, it isn’t like anyone gets to vote us out of the competition. Besides, as I said, it may not be that great after all.” Josee still didn’t change her mindset, being the first to pick up a fork and dig into the starter. A few seconds passed as she continued to chew and savour it. Eventually, her eyes widened in surprise, and she began to shovel even more into her mouth.

“Guess that’s enough of an answer.”

The rest of the team started picking at the various plates, soon enough having the same reaction as the female ice dancer.

…

_Atua’s Followers – judged by the Immortals  
Vegetable tempura ~ Grilled chicken ~ Strawberry and matcha roll cake ~ Lemonade_

“It’s surprising they managed to convince the Vegans to help make these.”

“What is it with Japan and roll cake? You have no idea how many videos I’ve seen online with these kinds of things.”

“Gotta admit, it doesn’t look half bad.”

Teruteru put a forkful of the cake back onto his plate. “I can’t speak for the taste. Who thought putting the two together was a good idea?”

…

_Victorious Secret – judged by Awesome Athletes  
Salad ~ Chicken Egg Tempura Don ~ Spumindi Lauper ice cream ~ Bubble tea_

“How big _is_ this bowl?!”

As it turned out, Tsumugi had gone above and beyond with the main, increasing the original two-person serving to cater for all ten.

“So, do we just…go for it?”

“I guess.”

“MacArthur.”

“I know…I’ll save some.”

While the cadet began shovelling forkful after forkful of rice into her mouth, Sky smelt the bowl of ice cream. “I don’t recognise this flavour. Any ideas?”

“Katie and Sadie made it before, but they keep the flavour a strict secret.”

“This’ll probably bug me for the rest of the challenge.”

…

_Lightning Squad – judged by the Hammerheads  
Camembert ~ Spaghetti carbonara ~ Mississippi mud pie ~ Protein coffee_

Needless to say, all twelve team members were hesitant to so much as touch what was in front of them. Five minutes had gone past, and the only change to the table spread was that the jug of coffee was empty.

Eventually, Rantaro ate some of the carbonara, offering his team a reassurance. “The meat’s all burnt, but the pasta itself is edible enough. I’d give that a six.”

Devin did the same, albeit with the cheese, spitting the food out soon after. “That’s burnt. Two for me.”

“I think the rest of the team are just going to take your word for it,” Alejandro said. “As for the pie…”

“Somebody has to.”

Cody picked up one of the twelve slices. “Everyone at once?”

The other eleven shared pained looks, before gulping and following suit – even Alejandro.

“Okay…one…two…”

The boys all held their noses and forced it down.

Immediately, Cody, Rantaro, Tom and Topher spat their mouthfuls across the table. Gonta, Junior and Rodney quickly chased it with water, while Mike and Cameron were choking on the mud. Unfortunately, Alejandro, Devin and Trent were the unlucky three whose first instinct was to puke it all up again. Sure enough, all but Gonta somehow were quick to have the same reaction, Jo and Scott watching from the hiding spot.

“Heh, we may be in last…”

“But it’s worth it to see Al suffering.” The smirk Jo noticed on Scott’s face said everything.

“Don’t tell me you planned this from the start? Nicely played, Dirt Boy.”

…

“Well, I think it’s clear to everyone who loses this round,” Chris announced, motioning to the Hammerheads table where the team were still vomiting up the food.

“Aside from that, Atua’s Followers come in fifth, with an overall score of fourteen. Fourth are Team Comet, scoring seventeen out of thirty. Third place goes to the Huntsmen, with twenty-one. Second are Victorious Secret, with twenty-eight points, leaving the Neo Amazons in first, with a perfect thirty!”

Slightly overwhelmed by the smell of the Hammerheads’…leftovers, Tomoko took to getting some fresh air while they cleaned up inside, passing by a few people on the steps.

“Pizza as our dinner?”

“After today, I don’t wanna see any more pizza for a few days.”

“Whose job do you think it’ll be to clean up the mess? Chef or Don?”

“One day I think Chef’ll crack and force the host man into the job.”

On the walk back, she noticed Shi stood on the steps to the spa hotel, talking with another person in a similar uniform. Upon noticing Tomoko’s early exit, Shi opened the doors and hurriedly pushed the poor guy inside, visibly relaxing when she saw who it was and offering her a polite wave.

“Better performance in the challenges, and Ishimaru-kun alive and well…things _are_ finally looking up.”


	20. Eat to Win

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The third challenge of Food Week takes place, but is it as successful as it was before?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’ve been on holiday and have made...zero progress with this fic since then. Partly because of having no WiFi until now, but also because of some ideas for other fanfics, which I hope to put out in the future. I’m not abandoning this one, we’re just in the boring bit.  
> Also, this was uploaded on my very touch sensitive iPad, therefore the formatting has gone to shit.

WUWhile breakfast for the players tended to fall between 8:30 and 10am, by Thursday, it was almost midday with zero activity in the kitchen. A couple of people were able to figure out well enough why this was, but it was confirmed when all the players were called to the mess hall, asked to sit with their teammates.

“Good midday, everyone! I’m assuming that most of you are quite hungry. This shouldn’t be for too long, however, as we’re about to go into our next Trials challenge - it’s the old classic, the eating challenge!”

Amy groaned and slammed her head into the table. “I can feel the taste of the Neo Amazons’ cooking vanishing already…it was beautiful while it lasted.”

Alejandro grimaced. “Didn’t my team just do this challenge on Tuesday?”

Chris laughed. “Yeah, you’d think so. All the food you’re about to see is _intentionally_ bad. Former players should recognise most of these from previous series of Total Drama – from season one, right up to the Ridonculous Race. Since last time there were only two teams competing, the way the game works had to be changed.

“There are going to be nine different rounds, each one with a different disgusting food on the menu, same as before. This time, the first three teams to finish their plates will get points – three points for first, two for second, and one for third. The other nine won’t get anything, but on the bright side, the bottom nine don’t have to finish their courses after the points have been awarded. Unfortunately, if even one member of the team throws up, you’re out of the running for that round. After all nine courses, the winning team gets fifteen points for the overall leader board.

“Also, to even out the numbers, each of the guys teams barring the Immortals have to sit a player out, and the Hammerheads have to sit out two.”

“At least if we don’t have to finish them this time—”

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” Noah stated. “Knowing Chef, most of the leftovers will be resurfacing in a few days.”

_Sitting out: Mickey (Team Comet), Kiibo (Huntsmen), Fuyuhiko (Lightning Squad), Devin, Topher (Hammerheads), Hagakure (Team Victory 2.0)_

…

“Post-merge season three players, I’m sure you remember a similar challenge to this one in China, where we served this.” Chris held up a starfish on a skewer. “Chinese delicacy! First three teams to finish theirs get the points!”

Surprisingly, it didn’t taste too bad. Crunchy on the outside, but salty at the same time, which made it a little easier for most people. Almost everyone ended up spitting out the outer shells, but since nobody was throwing it up, Chris let it slide.

The Neo Amazons ended up being the first to finish theirs, Heather in particular surprised with the easiness of that round.

“Why didn’t Chris lead with this in season three? Would have made my time easier.”

Team Comet and Team Victory 2.0’s members were close behind, only a couple on each still eating.

“Chris doesn’t care whether or not it’s easier for the players,” Dave forced another mouthful down his throat, visibly pained by the challenge.

Owen burped and put his stick down. “Yeah, if anything, I’d say he’s losing his edge.”

“Oh, you wish…”

_Top three: Neo Amazons (3), Team Comet (2), Team Victory 2.0 (1)_

…

“Alright, way back in season one, most of you guys got a taste of how the game would go from the very first course.”

The guys in question cringed as their hands went to their lower parts.

“So as a tribute to that moment, we’re bringing back the old favourite – beef testicle bourbignon.”

Every other male in the room, including Kiibo, joined in the cringing. Even Chris didn’t seem his usual sadistic self when it came to that one.

“It’s no big deal really.” MacArthur took two of them and downed them quickly enough. “Come on, boys. Why don’t you _grow a pair?_ ”

With the female teams clearing through their plates relatively quickly, Tomoko made a move to do the same thing, only for Geoff to grab her wrist.

“Nah, dude. Don’t bother. It isn’t worth it.”

“Oh, suck it up.” Jo had zero issues eating the “meatballs” in front of the rest of her team, revelling in their pained reactions.

_Top three: Awesome Athletes (3), Victorious Secret (2), Golden Girls (1)_

…

In the middle of each table was a pie dish, its contents cut into enough pieces for each player, glowing green.

“Is it supposed to look like this?”

“Yes. The Huntsmen have already had the chance to taste the non-toxic version, but this will be the version Scott’s eaten in the past. Before the Trials started, Chef headed out to the long-abandoned Boney Island, and managed to find enough toxic mushrooms to recreate Cameron’s original quiche for everyone. And yes, I know Scott managed to down it all in one go, but then again that was Scott so…we’ll see how it goes.”

“Done.” Ennui’s monotonous voice resounded.

“Wha--, already?!”

“The whole team’s finished,” Hifumi set his fork down along with the others.

“It wasn’t all that bad really.”

“Such an unnatural luminescence…yet I have endured worse in my lifetime.”

“Also, you never said we couldn’t eat while you were explaining.”

Soon after, the Most Dangerous Sisters pushed their plates into the middle, Komaru glancing at the teammate least likely to cooperate.

“Even you, Celes-san?”

“Once you overlook its appearance, the taste is quite exquisite.”

“Well,” Chris looked at Chef, “this isn’t how I was hoping the challenge would go at all.” Although some were going faster than others, every player seemed to be enjoying the food this time.

“Heh, McLean really has gone soft!”

_Top three: The Immortals (3), Most Dangerous Sisters (2), Victorious Secret (3)_

…

“Me and my big mouth.”

The immediate next course was yet another OG classic – the pizza topped with jellyfish, anchovies and live grasshoppers.

“Gone soft, you say? Enjoy…how the heck?!”

Most of the Lightning Squad had already pushed past the disgusting nature of the food, most likely motivated by the prospect of--

“Come on, man! You give the Lightning extra protein, the Lightning takes it!”

Fuyuhiko glanced in his direction. “You guys are weird.”

In the meantime, there were still three tables yet to gain any points – Atua’s Followers, hindered mainly by the Vegans and Dawn; the Hammerheads, hindered solely by their weak-stomached team leader; and the Huntsmen, who didn’t really have any excuse. Clearly realising this, DJ took the lead.

“Come on Geoff, Duncan. We’ve done this before, no problem, we can do it again!”

The OGs exchanged a look, along with Brody, then each picked up a slice.

“And you guys, at the end of the day, it’s still pizza! That’s gotta be better than starfish, right?”

“I…guess so?” Gradually, the six of them picked up the remaining pieces.

“It could be worse…”

“May not beat the Amazons, but regardless…” The last to finish, Leon, shoved the end of the slice into his mouth. “First points!”

“You mean first _point_.”

_Top three: Lightning Squad (3), Neo Amazons (5), Huntsmen (1)_

…

“Again, this one doesn’t look all that bad!”

“Uh, you might want to take a closer look.”

On first glance, it looked like a plain old brown casserole, but when you got a look of what was inside it…

“Dish number five – a blend of spaghetti, burnt bacon, cheese, mud, and a hint of chocolate. I like to call this, Lightning Squad Casserole. After all, it’s not fair that only the Hammerheads get to try their cooking!”

“Alright, no.” Alejandro knocked his own plate over. “This will only be worse than before.”

One of the trailing teams, the Golden Girls, looked at the plates in front of them, exchanged a shared look which said “this is going to be gross, but we need the points”, and dug in, holding their noses as they did so.

“Oh come on, it isn’t that bad!” The Squad, however, had little problems eating their own cooking, with a couple of exceptions.

“Of course _you_ would say that, you made it.”

“Aw man…nobody’s puking over it?” Chris groaned, eventually being cut off by DJ doing so. “Never mind.”

_Top three: Golden Girls (4), Lightning Squad (5), Team Victory 2.0 (2)_

…

“And we’ve cleared the halfway point in this challenge! Onto round six!”

One pink bag sat in the middle of the table, not many people sure how to react to it, until Alejandro picked it up and turned it around a few times.

“Hold on, isn’t this…”

“That’s right! Total Drama Yum-Yum Happy Go Time Candy Fish Tails!”

Before Chris could even go into his explanation of the food, a number of the team leaders tossed the bags across the room. Actually, one of them reached straight into the bag and pulled one out.

“Momota, are you serious?!”

“What? Got dared to eat one of these at my old high school, and I’ve had worse before!”

“There’s food… _worse_ than _that_?!”

Shuichi grimaced as he looked at the bag, eventually reaching in too. Kaito’s borderline-enthusiasm ended up motivating the rest of the team to start taking the Fish Tails.

“Well, I’m impressed – and a little disgusted – with you guys. Never seen anyone willingly down one of those things! Except Owen.”

_Top three: Team Comet (5), Neo Amazons (7), Most Dangerous Sisters (3)_

…

“Okay then, this seventh round works a little different.”

Each team captain lifted the lid off of the new tray in front of them. Atop the tray were glasses of milk or ice cream, and three bowls of peppers – three yellow, four green, and three more tiny red ones.

“Ridonculous Race players, remember the hot pepper cliff dive in Mexico? Those who ate the pepper, it would be a shame for your partners, or those eliminated beforehand, to miss out. You’ll notice that there are enough peppers and glasses of milk for each player. The yellow ones have next to no heat behind them, the green ones are quite spicy, and from what I’ve heard, the red ones are goddamn fireballs! Before I explain the rest, decide among yourselves who gets which type.”

Although a handful of the teams came to quick decisions, the main debates among players weren’t really down to who avoids the hottest ones, but who gets the hot ones. The players with the highest egos wanted to prove to the rest of their teams they could handle the hottest peppers.

“Now that everyone’s decided, here’s how it works. Everyone eats their peppers at the same time. From there, it’s a matter of endurance. The moment even one person on the team goes for one of the glasses of milk or ice cream, you’re out of the running for a point. The three teams who last the longest without anyone caving win the points. Everyone ready?” The players each picked up their peppers. “Go!”

Less than a second into having eaten the hottest peppers, Tenko, Owen, Amy, Sam and Beardo hurriedly reached for the ice cream, complete with cartoonish sound effects from the latter. Some thirty seconds after, Jen, Sugar and Heather followed.

Unfortunately for the Hammerheads, any chances of further points were squandered not by Alejandro (who was actually coping incredibly well with the heat), but instead by Trent.

“Less than a minute? Wow, you guys suck. But nonetheless, Lightning Squad, Athletes and the Huntsmen are our top-- oh! And the Huntsmen are out with one point. It comes down to six of the more tenacious players!”

MacArthur, Mukuro and Izzy vs Lightning, Tyler and Scott.

Shame none of those six were responsible for costing their team the win.

“Kazuichi! Come on man! That was only the green one!”

“Lightning Squad get two points but remain in the lead! Athletes, congrats!”

“Told you Sanders,” MacArthur looked at her partner, downing her milk, “pepper spraying everything pays off.”

“For stuff like this it does.”

_Top three: Awesome Athletes (6), Lightning Squad (7), Huntsmen (2)_

…

“Onto round eight of nine! No multi-course meal is complete without dessert, am I right? Sadly, there weren’t too many disgusting desserts in the history of Total Drama, except for one particularly disturbing one in season five.”

Mike, Zoey and Scott all gave each other an uneasy look.

“That’s right! Courtney’s sundae!”

Brick prodded the white topping. “What exactly is this supposed to be?”

“You’ll find out when I finish explaining. The ice cream is plain old Neapolitan, but is melting slightly. Topped with nuts, a cherry, chocolate coals, and the special sauce – bird vomit!”

Every player immediately exclaimed their disgust, Brick trying to wipe his hand on Nekomaru’s jacket.

“The whole thing needs to be finished, and everyone needs to have at least one spoonful.”

Needless to say, everyone took to intentionally avoiding the toppings, except for Atua’s Followers. With one of the rounds finally having no meat, Laurie and Miles got the first couple of spoonfuls of anything they could have. Immediately, Himiko took the bowl and began mixing all its contents into one, the girls more easily eating it.

“Just don’t think about what’s in it, and we’re good!”

“Hard to do when you’re bringing it up.”

Similarly, Dave took about six spoons of the ice cream part, before Chet did the same thing as Himiko, albeit with more visible disgust from the team.

“Atua’s Followers get the three points they need! And Team Victory 2.0 take second. Uh…guys…?”

The past seven rounds had surprisingly resulted in little vomiting from the players. This time, however, nine of the other teams yet to finish had at least three members sick from the last course. In fact, only one went without throwing up.

“I…guess that leaves the Immortals in third place. Chef! Get the mop and bucket!”

_Top three: Atua’s Followers (3), Team Victory 2.0 (4), Immortals (4)_

…

“And now, for the ninth and final course.” Chris paused as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, only having to endure one more. “You’ll be slightly happier to know that not everyone has to eat this meal. Chef is about to bring out two plates of food to each team. On said plates are foods specific to two players per team, thanks to previous episodes, or testimony from other players.”

Chef wheeled his push cart to Team Comet first. “Alright, says here that Shawn and Owen are the unlucky suckers over here.”

He lifted the dome off of the plate, revealing a tankard of an indiscernible sloppy liquid, and a dish of what everyone hoped were gummy sweets.

“Owen’s disgusting food is a bowl of the eyeballs from the Icelandic feast,” Chris announced. “As for Shawn, after reviewing footage from Pahkitew Island, it turns out that Shawn was the only member of the final seven to not so much as touch the Juggy Chunks. So, if you guys want to stand a chance of winning, Shawn must down the entire cup.”

“Oh, great…”

“As for everyone else, I’ll just list them off while Chef brings them over.” Chris cleared his throat. “For the same reason as previous, Alejandro & Cody of the Hammerheads get donkey meat, with no Courtney around to cheat for you. For the Neo Amazons, Stephanie gets a bowl of beans, and Carrie a gummy worm.” He paused to revel in Carrie’s reaction to the word. “An underwear sandwich is on the menu for Harold, and Dave gets the greasiest food Chef had in the kitchen. Laurie and Miles, normally I wouldn’t give you guys meat, but after Laurie’s veganism was thrown into question during the Ridonculous Race, I have no regrets. In the Immortals, Gundam has a very tame tub of caramel popcorn, and Teruteru has the far from tame _Chef’s_ _speciality_. For Ellody, we have a singed sheep head, and Lindsay has to go back in time to the season two prison challenge.”

This point in the intro, the Huntsmen zoned out as Chef came to their table and set their dome in the middle of the table.

“Alright, Huntsmen, you guys have to rest your hopes on Kokichi and Tomoko.”

The pair glanced at one another, Kokichi with indifference, Tomoko confused.

Chef lifted the dome as Chris continued to read off the card. “Kokichi apparently isn’t a fan of pig’s feet, so it’s gonna take five of those to stand any chance of winning. As for Tomoko, I know that you don’t like coffee…but it isn’t enough to just not like something, so you get the next worst thing – protein coffee!”

Tomoko stared wide-eyed at the can in front of her, then shot a glance to Amy at her table – the only other person sans Tess who knew of her…condition.

“Well…crap.”

“What’s the problem with coffee?”

“It’s not coffee. See,” Tomoko paused, “I have a _slight_ intolerance to protein powder.”

None of the team had the chance to register that properly, as every head turned to the Golden Girls table when an ear-piercing scream resounded through the mess hall.

“GET THAT AWAY FROM ME!”

Amy and Bridgette were the two chosen players from that team, and although Bridgette was simply a little unnerved by her dish – a plate of meat – Amy had to be physically forced into her seat by Leshawna.

“Extreme reaction for a green apple.”

“That… _is_ just a green apple, right?”

As the majority of players kept watching the scene, Sammy turned to Jasmine nervously. “I’ve scarred her for life, haven’t I?”

“No worries, mate. You gotta admit, she did deserve it.”

“I…guess…”

With all the players dishes on the table, Chris readied his airhorn. “Alright, first three duos to finish get the points. Puke, and you’re out of the running. Begin!”

Nobody so much as touched their food.

“Uh, hello? I said begin!”

Shawn made the first move, taking a small sip out of the Juggy Chunks, the whole thing immediately coming back up.

“Tough break, Shawn. Comet, you’re out of the running!”

With a couple of other teams puking themselves out or refusing to even try, Tomoko looked around to figure out what was happening. With little progress and varying levels of support from their teammates, she looked back over at Kokichi – who was surprisingly working through his plate.

“Ouma-kun, I thought you would be most likely to hinder us again.”

“Shut up, Kii-boy, and let me finish.”

The fact that there was no other insult or demeaning tone towards the robot came as a surprise to the others, more so than the fact he was actually…co-operating.

Tomoko looked down at the can in front of her, eventually releasing a loud sigh. “Oh, screw it.”

She popped the top open and began chugging its contents, surprising the rest of the players.

“Woah, slow down! Not liking it is one thing, but you don’t have to if you’re allergic!”

“One, it’s an intolerance,” she said between gulps, “and two, we need the points. Oh, God, I forgot how disgusting this stuff is…”

In the meantime, Gundam had started picking at his popcorn, Bridgette had slowly began gnawing on her meat (although Amy’s persistent refusal to take part meant it didn’t really matter), and Carrie & Teruteru both hurled as a result of their plates.

Following a minute of suffering, Kokichi eventually pushed his plate away with a burp. “Done.”

Tomoko, releasing a slightly louder burp, tossed her coffee can across the room. “Done!”

“And that’s three points to the Huntsmen! If you can keep from blowing chunks for a few more minutes. Since this is the final round, it’ll only count if you can keep it all in before we award second and third.”

Kokichi seemed to be fine, but the growl from Tomoko’s stomach gave away her condition.

“Great…”

Thankfully, about a minute later, two more teams had gotten close to finishing.

“And…second-place to Hammerheads! Unless, of course, Alejandro fed it all to another player or dumped it under the table…”

To vindicate this, Chef checked over the table – lifting the tablecloth up, demanding the players turn out their pockets, even going so far as checking everyone’s breath

“Come on...” Tomoko groaned, squeezing her shirt and biting her lip. “Get on with it...”

Chef eventually looked back at Chris after checking every possible option. “They’re clean.”

“Okay then! Hammerheads get two points, and Lightning Squad gets one.”

“Oh, thank God!” Immediately, Tomoko stood from her seat, a hand covering her mouth, and bolted out of the mess hall. Sadly, nature didn’t even allow her to get off the steps before everything came flying out and landed on the grass.

The first time she’d tasted protein powder, all that had happened was all the fluids inside her had come cascading out in waves of green. That was all. This time around, however, she felt inexplicably weak, as though her legs were giving out on her, her only form of support being leaning her head against the wall of the mess hall.

“We…better…” More puking. “…win…this…”

Other players were yet to leave the mess hall, so it came as a bit of a surprise when she felt an arm wrapping around her lower back and a bottle of water being pressed into her hand.

_Top three: Huntsmen (5), Hammerheads (2), Lightning Squad (8)_

...

“Well, Lightning Squad may the worst of the bunch at cooking food, but they’re definitely the best at eating it. Eight points this game means fifteen points overall!

“Second place are the Neo Amazons with seven points this game – twelve overall. Tied for third place are Team Victory 2.0 and Awesome Athletes.”

“How do ties work when awarding points?”

“Say you have a tie for second and third – we add the amounts of points you would get, totalling 22 in this example, and divide it by the number of tied teams. If it comes out as a decimal, we just round up. Athletes and Victory, in your case, each of you get ten points as usual. Fifth place are the Huntsmen, with five points this game, eight overall. You guys have to admit, at least now everyone on your team has some semblance of balls on them!”

“Well…maybe except for Kii-boy. That’s still debatable.”

“Team Comet, Golden Girls, and the Immortals are all tied for sixth place, and therefore gain…” he paused to do the mental math, “six points each. And right after that, we have another three-way tie for ninth – Most Dangerous Sisters, Atua’s Followers and the Immortals each get three points.”

The host then looked over to the final table. Cody was a bit pale in the face, while Alejandro had been given a bucket of his own.

“Hammerheads, gotta say, the same challenge twice in one week? Ouch. Regardless, those two points you just earned were your only two this whole game. Al…” The puking team leader shot Chris a death glare, immediately burying his head back into the bucket. “One point, and last place. Oh, and on that note, can someone go make sure Tomoko’s okay?”

Chef glanced out of the window. “I think someone’s already got it covered.”

…

Tomoko knew she’d been moved elsewhere by the person supporting her, by the fact that the air smelt less fresh, and she was sat on what felt like a bed, a small bucket on her lap catching her bodily fluids rather than them landing onto the carpet.

“Kimura-kun! Could I have some help in here please?”

Recognising the voice of the other person, she wiped her mouth on her sleeve and looked up. Sure enough, Shi’s words from the other day rang true.

“Ishimaru-kun…?”

Looking away from the door, Kiyotaka gave her a light smile.

“This wasn’t exactly the reunion I was hoping for either.”

Setting the bucket down on the floor, Tomoko couldn’t stop herself from standing from the bed and hugging Kiyotaka in pure relief. It only lasted for a few seconds, however, as she had to quickly drop herself back onto the mattress to throw up again.

“Woah! Alright, take it easy.”

As soon as her current puking fit came to an end, she wiped her mouth again. “You’re...okay?”

“Of course I am! Why wouldn’t I be?” He paused to think. “Oh, of course. Yes, I wasn’t tremendously affected by what happened that night. A little shook, but alright on the whole. And how are you doing? After...being...”

“It’s a lot better now. Just a small scar now.” She kept her sentences short to avoid more up-chucking. “God, I’ve been so worried.”

Kiyotaka took a seat next to Tomoko on the bed and rested a hand on her shoulder. “It’s all being handled now - there’s nothing for the two of us to stress over anymore.”

“Yeah...I guess not.” _At_ _least_ _in_ _relation_ _to_ _this_.

Seiko walked into the room, a bottle of some kind of drug in her hand. “Feeling any better?”

“Nope. Still like crap.”

“Language!”

Seiko removed the lid of the bottle and emptied some of its contents - a lilac coloured fluid - into the cap and offered it to Tomoko.

“Here, drink this. Just the one capful will be good enough to stop the vomiting for the hour, but as soon as you get back to your cabin, be sure to take the one I prescribed you. It should be fixed by tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Kimura-san.” Tomoko downed the cap of liquid as the pharmacist left the room.

“So have you seen Shi-kun around the island yet?”

“Yeah. She told me everything about who she is. How’s the questioning been, by the way?”

Kiyotaka grit his teeth and rubbed his temples. “Frustrating. I’ve been approached by Chris, Munakata-kun, Yukizome-sensei, Kirigiri-kun, Togami-kun, and every single time I’ve been asked the exact same questions. At the very least, there should be little dispute among them as to the validity of my answers.”

Tomoko couldn’t help but smirk. “Sounds rough. Can’t be as bad as babysitting duty.”

“Who?”

“Remember Ouma-kun from the school festival?”

“Oh, him! How’s he been doing?”

 _Time to let Ouma-kun rub off on me...again._ “He’s been good.”

“Wonderful! I’ll have to meet with him at some point. And Momota-kun too! At least, when you aren’t competing.”

“On that note, I better head back. Make sure my team knows I’m alive.” She stood up, bucket in hand, and walked towards the door. “We’ll catch up a little more when I’m feeling less crappy.”

“Language, again!”

“Sorry.” Tomoko paused in the doorway. “Oh, yeah. Congratulations on Harvard.”

“Thank you, Fukuhara-kun!”

“When do you leave?”

“I’m gone in June. I’ll be returning to Japan for some months to spend time with my father before university.”

“Whatever you do, you deserved it. I’ll see you around.” She smiled.

“Get well soon, Fukuhara-kun.”


	21. Bloody Sundae

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don takes control of his first challenge, this time hoping to make it more enjoyable than the last time, while one of the pairings forms an unexpected bond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I started university not too long ago, and as a result, it took me longer to finish writing this chapter. Like I said in the last one, this is likely to be the most irrelevant one in the entire story, so the least interesting for me to write - hence why most of it looks half-assed. The next ones should come out every week as usual again - maybe even some double updates if I finish them quickly enough.

_Glancing down at her lap, Tomoko shuffled awkwardly on the uncomfortable plastic seat. All the things on her mind, yet she couldn’t bring herself to confide any of them._

_~_

_“Look, I know you aren’t just here to see your boss in prison. That would be a bit creepy given the circumstances. If you have something to talk about, just cough it up and get out.”_

_~_

_In hushed conversation with one of the wardens, Tomoko noticed a ###################, probably no older than herself. ######################################. It was only when ### turned to face her that it clicked._

…

The rest of Tomoko’s dream (?) was interrupted by a firm shove to the centre of her chest.

“Wakey-wakey, sleepyhead!”

Knelt over the top of her was a fully-dressed Kokichi, his face directly over hers.

“Ouma-kun…?” She rubbed the grit from her eyes, her voice still a little rough. “What’s going on?”

“You overslept is what’s going on. We’re probably halfway through breakfast now. Be thankful DJ-chan saved you some.”

As Kokichi jumped down and went towards the door, Tomoko looked around the rest of the cabin. Everyone else had already gone to breakfast, evidenced by their pyjamas cast onto their beds to varying degrees of tidiness.

“Must be those drugs. Making me feel like a different kind of crap today.”

Not even bothering to throw on any other clothing, Tomoko just slipped her feet into her shoes and followed Kokichi across the clearing to her team’s table. In a spot next to DJ, as Kokichi said, there was a small plate of breakfast food.

“I’d hurry up if I were you. Chef just announced we have another challenge coming up.”

“Thanks. Still not really in the mood for too much this morning.”

“Hopefully today we catch a break from the torturous challenges again. You know, see if Chris is still in his oddly softer mood.”

While slowly working through the stuff on her plate, she glanced in the direction of the Golden Girls table, taking note of the absent member. “Anyone seen Sierra this morning?”

“Take one guess.”

Said superfan was hovering around the end of the Hammerheads’ table, specifically around Alejandro and Cody. Even though most people among the participants had recovered from yesterday’s disgusting food, the two guys were still quite pale from the donkey meat.

“Are you absolutely sure? Are you still feeling sick? Do you need me to get you anything? Maybe a foot rub?”

“I’m fine, Sierra.”

“I mean when I ate it back in China I had to get checked for any diseases when I got back home after the series ended, but I’m sure it’s nothing serious! You don’t feel like your stomach’s eating itself?”

“Really, Sierra. I’ll live. Just go back to your table.” Despite the tolerance he’d built up over the years to his stalker, clearly the increased fuss was getting on his nerves once more. Taking the hint, Sierra dropped back into her own seat between Kaede and Miku.

“So, _is_ he okay?” Kaede asked her.

“Why do you care?”

“It’s just it’s all you’ve been talking to us about all morning. The way you made it sound, we thought he was dying. Although not everyone necessarily cared,” she briefly looked in Amy and Josee’s directions, the partners sat at opposite ends of the table. “What was with the suspicion?”

“I just thought you were like a love rival for Cody or something.”

“Love riv…no! I-it’s not that at all! Besides, I kind of already have someone.” A slight red dusting coated her cheeks. “It’s just, why _are_ you so concerned about him?”

“If I’m not there to worry about him, who will be?”

Kaede turned away from the fan and muttered to herself. “If anything you seem more like a helicopter parent.”

…

Shortly after the girls’ exchange, an announcement sounded to attract the players’ attention.

“It’s been a while, Don!” Brody waved at the host. “Where’s the Chris man at?”

“Chris isn’t able to do hosting duty today, as he has some external business to attend to, leaving me to take over for today’s challenge. However, I have been asked to read one thing he left behind.” Don waved a card at the others, before going on to introduce the challenge. “Something a lot of people have been able to agree about with Total Drama All Stars, was that the events of episode eleven –the sundae challenge – were highly divisive among the fan base. Thanks to this episode, the fan bases of some characters grew, while others dropped. No names mentioned,” even though he did glance towards the spa hotel, before looking down at the card. “Therefore, in order to have ‘a fresh start in the new all-star season’, the next challenge Chris wants to redo is the sundae challenge.”

“Finally! We’re guaranteed good food for this week!”

“The order in which you’ll build up your sundaes is almost identical to the last one. First stop is the top of the cliff for your three scoops, only this time, there are even more flavours for your guys to use. Second is the middle of the swamp for the glace cherry, and third is the mess hall for the chopped nuts. Stop number four, however, is a new addition in order to support the increased number of participants. On a platform on the lake, you’ll find three bowls of more snazzy toppings – one has fruit, one has candy, and the third sandwich biscuits. To get them, you have to walk across one of the logs that leads to them, without falling into the lake. Following that, stop five is the sauce.

“Once again factoring in the volume of players, this challenge will be a paired relay race, so each pair has to make two sundaes. The first pair from your team to run the course will be the captains and their partners, in charge of getting the ice cream. They’ll pass off to pair number two at the bottom of the cliff, who’ll have to head for the swamp, pair number two being whichever pair joined your team second. Third pairs take the nuts, fourth the extra toppings, and fifth the sauce. After that, the last pairs sprint to the finish line and get to eat what their other teammates have created. In the case of the Hammerheads, I believe the sixth-place pairing for you guys was Devin and Junior, right?”

“Technically, it was a tie,” Tom said.

“Well I’m saying in this challenge, it was Devin and Junior. They’ll wait at the finish line, where they’ll receive their creations from Tom & Trent, and then _they_ will eat the sundaes.”

The pair in question high-fived.

“And obviously, the first team to finish all the stages of the relay wins the day.” Don then looked to Tomoko. “You might want to get changed before your leg starts.”

* * *

 

_Stage 1 – the ice cream_

At the sound of the air horn, the twelve pairs took off from the starting line, bowls in hands. Sanders and MacArthur were quick to make time ahead of everyone else, although Lightning, Brick and Jo weren’t too far behind. The closeness between the two teams lasted even as they were climbing up the cliff, while the others were a mixed bag of athleticism.

Along with the snow machine used to recreate the arctic climate on top of the cliff, a hoard of snowmen had been built using the different ice creams. This time, instead of the same old vanilla, strawberry and chocolate being in all of them, as Don said, the first stage of the relay race was like if they opened a Baskin Robbins in the middle of Antarctica.

Cody sniffed the air as he reached the top. “I don’t think I recognise half of these flavours.”

“What are they, anyway?” Ryota sniffed the air, too. “Green tea…mango…”

The Imposter stuck a finger into a different abnormally smelling one. “Who ever thought of combining lime with gingerbread?”

With all the appealing choices, the pairs started running around the top of the cliff, looking for the flavours they liked the look of the most, sometimes forgetting they weren’t even going to be the ones eating it. Initially, only one team did manage to be more sensible over it all.

“MacArthur, wait!” Sanders grabbed her arm. “We can’t waste time on choosing one of the nicer flavours! You want to get to the top of the leaderboard, right?”

“Is that even a question?”

“Because we’re a more athletic team, we should focus on staying ahead of the others. Mukuro and Peko aren’t the biggest fans of sweet foods, so if the rest of us stay in the lead for the rest of the race, they’ll have more time to eat the sundaes at the end.”

The bad cop grinned. “And this is why you’re the superhero in this duo.” They each scooped up a basic neopolitan sundae each and retreated back down the slope.

A couple of other pairs noticed their more sensible approach – MDS and the Hammerheads for instance – and followed suit, albeit not as fast as the leading pair. Others, however, had an equally as well thought out strategy.

“Sierra-san likes the really lively types of flavours, and Akamatsu-san is more of a vanilla & strawberry type of person, so let’s just craft the sundaes around them. That way, at the end, they should eat it faster.”

“Great idea, Maizono-san!”

Sayaka put together the more elegant combination for Kaede, while Miku picked out any three random exciting flavours for Sierra, and they too made a fast exit. All the while, other pairings still couldn’t make up their minds.

“Come on, Lindsay! Just pick any three.”

“But I don’t know if Sugar will like it.”

“It’s Sugar! She’ll eat anything!”

…

_Stage 2 – the cherry_

“Come on…what’s taking everyone so long?”

Only one team had rocked up to the second stage so far – the Awesome Athletes. Because of this, the waiting pairings by the swamp were under the impression that either they were too tough to beat, or everyone else was too slow. Most waiting players settled on the former, mainly because of the leading team themselves. Not to mention they’d made it fairly obvious they had a plan by their whispering.

Eventually, Gonta nudged his partner. “Ooh! Gonta sees our teammates!”

“Miku and Sayaka are coming too!”

Both pairs stopped at the edge of the swamp and tagged off to their teammates, handing over the bowls of ice cream and heading back. Amy and Josee were quick to jump in, taken aback by the depth of the swamp, so as a result forced to keep their bowls high above their heads.

In the meantime, Gonta took Rantaro’s bowl from him. “Climb on, Amami-kun! You look after the ice cream, and Gonta will get the cherries!”

“That isn’t a bad call.” Rantaro climbed up onto Gonta’s shoulders and took the bowls from him again as he followed the girls.

“Hey, the Hammerheads have the right idea!” Mondo picked up Chihiro and put him onto his own shoulders. “Get ready to grab our bowls.”

As each team passed off to their next players, there was little hesitation when it came to getting dirty and jumping into the swamp. Until the Neo Amazons showed up.

“And why am I holding both sundaes again, Heather?”

“Obviously I’m not going in there. Have you seen my outfit?”

“It’s the exact same outfit you’ve worn for the last seven years!”

“Whatever. Get moving.”

Now added to the list of people who’d had enough of Heather’s bullshit and refusal to grow up in that regard, Stephanie put the bowls beside her feet and tossed Heather into the swamp with complete disregard.

“Ghh…you’re going to regret this.”

“Don’t count on it.”

…

_Stage 3 – the nuts_

If you thought the players were going to go more than two weeks without sabotaging the others, you would be very much wrong. In order to compensate for falling behind at the second stage thanks to Heather’s refusal to cooperate, Stephanie decided to stir things up a little and change the direction of the path leading to the mess hall. Unfortunately, the only people it seemed to trap turned out to be Team Comet – only as far behind as they were due to Mondo getting his foot jammed between a couple of rocks in his stage of the race – while all the other bottom placing teams were smart enough to avoid this.

“Great. I think we might be in last place.”

“How? We weren’t that close to the bottom when Mondo and Chihiro passed off to us.”

“True. But we’ve been running for ten minutes now, and the path still isn’t leading us back to the mess hall.”

“Sabotage?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me. Someone was bound to eventually.” They ran a little more, a path eventually forming ahead. “You know they left a lot of detail out when they were explaining this one.”

“I know. Makes me a bit more worried about what’s inside. Oh hey, there’s the mess hall!”

The duo ran over to the building and were prepared to burst in, when they spotted the other pairings waiting outside. Katie & Sadie, Leon & Ian, and Fuyuhiko & Kazuichi were all crouched behind the steps, looking into the door.

“Weren’t some of you further behind too?”

“Yeah, but we pulled ahead.”

“You fell for the fake path trick, didn’t you?”

“So what if we did? Shouldn’t you guys be adding nuts to your sundaes?”

“We would, but…” Ian pointed inside, and the two other guys followed his finger.

Where last time the nuts were guarded by the Drama Machine robot, this time it was by one of the old robot animals from season six. Specifically, Scuba/Bling/Pasta Bear.

Inside the building, Laurie and Miles were trying and failing to evade the bear’s attacks, while Harold and Justin were being beaten to a pulp. Well, mostly Harold, with Justin being too pre-occupied with saving his face.

“Yeah, we’ve all been stuck out here a while, trying to figure out how to get past it,” Fuyuhiko said. “Crimson and Ennui’s duos have already managed to get around it somehow, and Sky & Maki were leaving by the time we got here.”

“So the animal magnetism extends to the fake ones too, huh.”

All the waiting players ducked simultaneously as Harold and Justin got tossed out of the door, faceplanting the ground. On the bright side, their sundaes remain intact and had nuts on them. On the other hand, it didn’t look like Justin would be modelling in the near future.

“So…” Owen looked to the rest of them, “who’s going next?”

…

_Stage 4 – the extra stuff_

The Athletes were long gone from stage four by the time the second-place pairing arrived. And for the entirety of the race so far, this team had been the Hammerheads. No matter how soon after them that the next teams passed off to their teammates (Scott & Tyler, Shawn/Mickey/Jay, and Bridgette & Leshawna), none of them could seem to close the gap between them.

Eventually, the Huntsmen had their cue to keep going as Leon & Ian passed their bowls over to Tomoko’s trio, Kiibo being the first to take one of the bowls. The other one wasn’t taken until Kokichi nudged Tomoko.

“Hey, Fukuhara-chan…can you carry the bowl? And me?”

“What? I know the logs are difficult to walk across, but do you really need me to carry you?”

“I’m just not feeling so good right now. It feels like there’s some kind of _pressure_ on my body, like my lungs are being _crushed_ …”

Tomoko groaned and rolled her eyes, not even hiding her irritation with Kokichi, using his death to have his way. “Fine…hop on.”

Once she had the other bowl, and Kokichi on her shoulders, she hopped onto the log to the right of Kiibo, although she did perform a double take when she saw what he was wearing.

“Where’d the life jacket come from?”

“If I fell off the log, I would sink like a rock.”

“That’s not…never mind.”

For a while, all of the players at this stage in the challenge were finding it surprisingly easy to get to the podiums across the lake, no obstacles arising to trip them up. That is until two realisations were made. One, what would happen if they encountered someone coming back across the same log? And two…

“What’s that giant cloud of dust in the distance?”

Everyone out on the lake stopped what they were doing and looked back behind them, those on the podiums not moving from their positions either. The dust cloud appeared to be getting closer to the lake at a rapid speed, the cause of it eventually becoming visible.

“Is that Akane?”

“Carrying Angie?”

The gymnast was clearly trying to compensate for her team falling behind earlier in the game somewhere, by using her athletic abilities.

“Oh, darn it,” Shawn, currently in the process of trying to get past Tomoko and Kokichi back to the mainland, pointed behind them in panic, “she’s headed right for us!”

“Bail, Fukuhara-chan!”

Before Akane could knock them over herself, she and Shawn held their sundaes high above them and jumped into the lake, the resulting gust of air from her immense speed even knocking the rest of the players off their logs (except Kiibo, still too heavy to be truly affected).

“Hey, Owari-san!”

“My bad. Gotta get ahead in the game, ya know?” She called from her podium as she and Angie loaded up their sundaes.

Both annoyed by the interruption, Shawn and Tomoko, the latter still with Kokichi holding onto her back, pulled themselves back onto the log before everyone else.

“She better not do that on the way back.”

…

From quite a distance away, the final pairings were stood waiting to finish the challenge. All the while, they were able to watch everyone’s repeated failure to get across the logs, witness Akane’s incredible wipeout of the others, and in some cases complain about the cheaters.

“No way! Hiyoko totally cheated!”

“And Scott just shoved the twins off their log too!”

“This surprises you why?”

Oddly enough, the two who weren’t paying any attention to the challenge were Sierra and Kaede. Following the whole thing about Cody at breakfast, Kaede had been reluctant to bring it up with her again, although one thing had been on her mind since then.

“Hey, Sierra? I’ve been thinking since this morning…the way you’re so attached to Cody, are you even friends or…”

The superfan looked over at her. “Of course we are! Since season three, duh. We’re best friends!”

“And…is that it? Don’t you have any other friends?”

“Hmm…” Sierra looked at the sky while counting off her fingers. “I guess Heather, but then again she’s also Heather…things didn’t end the best with Cameron in All Stars…I don’t know if I can count Chris as a friend…” She looked back to Kaede. “No, I think that’s it.”

“That doesn’t bother you at all? Aren’t you even friends with the other people on the team?”

“Not really. The relationship status hasn’t ever really upgraded from idols to friends. And no, it doesn’t bother me too much. Besides, if I had friends, I wouldn’t have any time to manage my blogs. And someone needs to keep the fandom updated about everything that’s going on.”

“Right, maybe now. But what about after Total Drama finishes? When everyone goes their separate ways, where will you be then?”

She looked ready to come back with a reply, but paused, hit with some kind of epiphany. Before too long, she let out a shrill gasp. “You actually think Total Drama is going to end?!”

 _Denial_. “I mean, you can’t seriously expect everyone to do this forever. Do you really think some of them would even be willing to come back here once they’ve got their lives figured out?”

“Are you trying to tell me I’ve been wasting my life by dedicating all my time to the series?”

“Not at all! You’ve been doing the…fandom, a real service with all of your blogging. If it weren’t for you, the other fans of Total Drama wouldn’t be anywhere near as in touch with the players as they are. Even Kaito used your blogs for information when he got into the show!”

“He did?”

“Yeah! That just goes to show, at least for some people, you’ve become a bigger part of the series through what you’ve contributed. But you really do need to find something else to dedicate your time to when Total Drama does inevitably come to an end. Whether that’s another hobby, another topic to blog about, or even the real people in your life, rather than the ones you only know online.”

Sierra actually seemed to be taking her words to heart as she spoke, a far cry from the more hyperactive Sierra that Kaede had seen up until now.

“You know, I’m surprised no one else has said that to me yet. I honestly don’t know what I would have done with my life after graduating the Neo Hope’s Peak. But I still don’t see how I can focus more time with the real people in my life, when I don’t have too many.”

“I mean…we could be friends?” Kaede smiled at her. “The only people I’m really that close to at the moment are Sayaka and my classmates. It would do both of us good if we branched out a little more.”

“Hm. I guess you have a point.” She returned the smile.

The duo looked back out at the lake for a little more, noting that a couple more teams had finished during their conversation. Eventually, Sierra too thought of something from the morning to ask her.

“So…you were saying at breakfast about already having someone?”

Kaede went violently red at this. “That’s…well…I guess so…okay, don’t tell anyone about this, but I am in a relationship…”

Sierra gasped and whipped her phone out. “OMG! Spill!”

“Heh…you know Shuichi on Team Comet? We became friends from day one at the academy, and from there we just got…closer over the years.” There was one particular night out during their second year that they’d been forced into by Kaito, Kokichi and Maki of all people. A night at a…hotel…but she was smart enough to omit that detail.

“But I haven’t even seen you interacting much with him. Not here, anyway.”

“We mainly meet up after all the challenges. In the evening.” She noted the changed look on Sierra’s face. “N-not in that way! There’s just too much going on with challenges and all that to hang out during the day!”

“Ooh! Bridgette and Leshawna are finally coming!”

Free from further embarrassment, the colour faded from Kaede’s face quickly. She was still a bit flustered about what she’d revealed about her up-until-then on-the-down-low relationship, but at least now she stood a chance of befriending someone else in the group for real.

…

_Stage 5 – the sauce_

“I’m not seeing any fire flowers around here. Maybe we took a wrong turn?”

“Come to think of it, I don’t see any sauce at all.”

“But look. There’s loads of holes in the ground.”

Hajime got closer to one of them and felt the earth rumble as he did, a tall spurt of chocolate sauce exploding from it. Unfortunately, it took the guy by surprise too much that he forgot to collect any of it.

“So that’s how it works this time.”

“Doesn’t this seem a little _too_ easy?”

Yes, it turns out. The Hammerheads, Golden Girls and Team Comet all managed to finish really quickly. And it was only by the time the Huntsmen and MDS got their sauce that more drama was created.

“Hmm…” With no other teams in her line of sight, Celeste reached for a large rock the size of one of the holes. “Why not make things interesting again?”

“Celes-san?”

“Just give me a moment here, Sonia-san.” She dropped the rock over the hole of chocolate sauce and pushed it down with her foot, moving on to do the same with the caramel, while Jacques looked on from the sidelines.

“Well that saves me a job.”

“Hurry up!”

…

With Chris still away and Chef preparing for dinner, Don had had to wait by the finish line for everyone to arrive and start eating, and the gap between the first and second place teams was quite large.

By the time Devin and Junior made it, they stared in shock when they saw Mukuro and Peko’s progress – the latter halfway through, but the former practically finished.

“You’re almost there, Pekoyama-san.”

“I know, but I just don’t like sweet things.”

“What? They’re already eating?!”

“I knew they were far ahead, but not _this_ far!”

“Don’t worry, Junior. As long as we eat it quickly enough, we still have a chance to beat them! Just ignore the brain freeze and down it!”

“Now that’s a challenge I can get behind!”

Devin and Junior picked up their spoons and shovelled mouthfuls of their sundaes into their mouths.

“Wow! The Hammerheads are looking to close the gap! Will they pull it off, or can Peko maintain her team’s lead?”

Another minute passed of this, Junior’s face starting to contort in pain with brain freeze, when all three of them raised their bowls at nearly the same time.

“Ooh, good effort Hammerheads, but Peko secures first place for the Awesome Athletes by a narrow margin! And here come some more teams!”

Ryoma and Makoto of Team Comet made it significantly further ahead of any others, so had a fighting chance of getting third by eating slowly, which they did. The Golden Girls earlier strategy and Akane’s speed boost proved useful in helping their teams respectively score fourth and fifth.

“Lightning Squad sixth, Huntsmen seventh, Immortals eighth, MDS ninth…”

“Alright, cough it up!” Sam, Dave and Hagakure, all dripping in caramel and chocolate, glared daggers at the finished teams. “Who blocked the sauces?”

Shinjiro, eyes narrowed, turned to his partner. “ _Jacques_ …”

“Alright, so maybe I considered it, but it wasn’t me this time!”

“Oh, right,” Celeste addressed the guys, “that was my doing.”

“Celeste? But I thought you didn’t really care about the Trials, so long as your team wins.”

“Given how the Athletes were progressing, I knew we couldn’t secure another win. At the very least, I could entertain myself by toying with everyone else.”

The incident ended up being mostly swept under the rug while the Neo Amazons pushed themselves into tenth place, and Sugar’s high levels of greed gave her team a chance of only just avoiding last place.

With the challenge all but complete, the other players had left the finish line to go back to their cabins, Sierra and Kaede walking together.

“Oh, Sierra, there’s still a little sauce around your mouth.”

“Ah.” She wiped her arm across her face, clearing the chocolate stain. “Thanks Kaede.”

“No problem.”

“Well, that was an improved performance, wasn’t it? Fourth place!”

“Yeah!” Kaede went slightly red once more. “And, just to make sure…the whole thing with Shuichi and I…”

“Don’t worry Kaede, it’ll only get out on your terms. That’s what friends are for, right?”

* * *

 

Shortly after Don got to tallying the scores for the teams, the Huntsmen gathered around the leaderboard to check the overall results from the last two weeks.

1st – Hammerheads (42 points)  
2nd – Awesome Athletes (40 points)  
3rd – Team Comet (36 points)

“Well then,” Jacques said, “we had two main goals for this week: find Ian’s secret admirer, and change our position on the leaderboard.”

4th – Most Dangerous Sisters (35 points)  
5th – Neo Amazons (34 points)  
6th – Lightning Squad (32 points)  
7th – The Immortals (28 points)

“Still no more leads in terms of the first one, but at least we moved out of second-last place.”

8th – Victorious Secret (27 points)  
=9th – Team Victory 2.0 (26 points)  
=9th – Atua’s Followers (26 points)  
11th – Golden Girls (23 points)

“It’s just a shame we moved IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!”

12th – The Huntsmen (22 points)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, Sierra and Kaede kind of got some development in this story! Also, nearly 5,000 words, and that's the only part I think is any good.


	22. A Second Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of the less cooperative Huntsmen gets some advice, and the Neo Remnants get planning for their next move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next one's nearly done. Expect another update this week.

With the second week of challenges concluded, another extra location was made available to the players. This time, rather than being a facility hidden somewhere on the island, it was outside. During the weekend, Chef had to take a boat trip to the mainland in order to purchase provisions for the kitchen, having just blown the majority of it for Chris and his challenges, when Don got the idea of letting the players travel over there for supplies of their own – some for improving their living conditions, others for those who just wanted to keep sustenance of their own in their quarters.

One of the teams taking advantage of this was the Huntsmen, still feeling a mix of emotions after ending up dead last on the leaderboard. The only real leg-up they had over when the Golden Girls were dealt the same blow, was that _their_ Ice Dancer wasn’t tearing the cabin apart, or even too visibly salty over it all. Much to the surprise of everyone else.

“I guess being somewhat separated from his partner’s changed the guy for the better,” Geoff had said to the others while he was elsewhere.

“We’ll see about that,” came the sceptical reply of some others.

By lunchtime, while browsing through the aisles, the team noticed that one of their players was in an oddly good mood. Not that it was unnatural for them, but just that they hadn’t stopped smiling since they’d left Pahkitew Island.

“What exactly has you so happy today, Shinji?”

“And what’s with the camera?”

“I think I found out a future challenge, so figured since we’re in last right now, we need all the help we can get.”

“Meaning?”

“ _Meaning_ ,” he grabbed multiple different teammates by the collars, “DJ, Geoff, Brody, Duncan, you’re all coming with me to the freezer aisle.”

“Wait, why the freezer aisle?”

“You’ll see. Oh, right, I forgot.” He pulled everyone back. “Leon, you too.”

“Ah, what?”

Clearly he was unwilling to give any kind of explanation, as he just went ahead and continued to drag the five of them to the freezer aisle. With the majority of the guys preoccupied, Ian decided to stick with Tomoko and Jacques, while Kokichi wandered off to do his own thing.

“Hey, aren’t we missing someone?”

“You mean Kiibo?” Ian pointed to the supermarket doors. “He’s been having problems with the store security.” The three were quiet as they tried to tune in on the beeping from the entrance, as well as the feint conversation between Kiibo, and a confused & disgruntled security guard.

“Since when is supermarket security like airport security? You’d think they’d be letting him in easily enough.”

“I mean, if you were working security and saw a sentient walking metal box, how would you react?”

“Jacques, word of advice,” Tomoko said. “You’ve already got the villainous ice dancer mark against you. I recommend you do everything possible to prevent adding ‘robophobe’ to that list.”

“Robophobe? Ugh, never mind, I don’t want to know.”

“Nah, believe me,” Kokichi poked his head between some cereal boxes, “end up as a robophobe and he won’t let you hear the end of it. Literally.”

“What are you doing over there?”

“Duh, shopping? I have my own things I’d like in our cabin, thank you.”

“He’s got a point.” Ian dropped one of the cereal boxes into the team’s trolley. “I’m headed to the books aisle.”

“You already have five notebooks under your bed!”

“Yeah. And?”

“You don’t think that’s enough?”

“I’m the SHSL Songwriter, you know.”

“But we’ve never even seen you write anything in any of them.”

“What? I don’t have to write every one of my songs around one of you. Or can’t I have a private life?”

Both Jacques and Tomoko went silent at this minor outburst, not replying to him and instead letting him go elsewhere.

“That was…out of character.”

“So that doesn’t happen often?”

“Nope. Though I thought spending two weeks in a cabin with him, you’d have an idea of that too.”

He scoffed. “If you knew me at all, you’d probably know I’m not on this team to make friends.”

Tomoko looked over at the ice dancer.

“The thing everyone seems to have forgotten is that when, and _if_ we top the leaderboard by the end, we’ll all just be competing against one another. All the friendships will just be broken again. What’s the point of getting too attached if they’re just going to get in the way later on?”

Tomoko glanced elsewhere. “Yeah…that’s a load of bull.”

“How is the truth bull?”

“I’m not saying that the reasoning behind that mindset is bull. I just don’t think that’s really what you think.”

“And how exactly would you know that?”

“I’ve spent enough time with Kokichi to be able to tell if someone’s lying. Also, you’re not Josee.”

Jacques dropped a box into the basket. “Alright then. Enlighten me.”

“If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about Total Drama, it’s that the villains of the series tend to be motivated by something to give them that title – being famous by winning, wanting to prove they aren’t all they seem, or just wanting to win a little too much. Honestly, people will say yours and Josee’s case was the third one, but I don’t think that’s all. You’re both professional athletes at the end of the day – it may not have looked like it, but a little something like that wouldn’t be enough to cause it. I’m assuming it was your first Olympics?”

“Yes, but I don’t have to tell you anything more than that. Didn’t you just hear Ian? I’m allowed to have a private life.”

“Sure, and I get that. There might well be a valid reason why you both acted like that during the Race, but-- Ouma-kun!” She cut herself off and abandoned the trolley mid-lecture to run over to one of her partners. “We already have three boxes of Panta! We don’t need a fourth!”

Kokichi relented and walked back to the other aisle, as Tomoko returned to the trolley, clearing her throat. “…but if I am right, then that doesn’t mean you have to carry those motivations with you forever. Remember what Josee said when you two were eliminated?”

“A lie? Believe me, she hasn’t followed through on that even a little.”

“Maybe she hasn’t, but honestly, you have the chance to. Both of you. I think. Look what happened with Heather – the fans who didn’t like her back in season one thought she was irredeemable. She got her comeuppance eventually, and actually _did_ redeem herself during World Tour. Hell, it wasn’t just her…” she paused, thinking.

_Courtney technically had since the end of TDAc, but not on any of the broadcast shows; Alejandro…meh, if you squint; Scott was still a jerk, but not evil anymore; Sugar’s still a diva; Mal’s dead; and Scarlett…well, I just have a feeling we could all be dead before graduation._

“…okay, I’ll take back that last part. But the point I’m trying to make…you want to win, don’t you?”

Jacques scoffed. “Clearly.”

“Then that’ll be far easier if you get onto the rest of the team’s good side. They’ve agreed to put their differences aside for the sake of the game, but that’s a two-way street. I’m not saying you haven’t, it’s just…the times you get serious about these challenges, it’s really just for yourself, not for the team. And the only real way for the team to work as a unit is to actually try getting along, hell, even by becoming friends.”

Tomoko’s rambling ended in silence, except for the continuing buzzing from the store’s entrance.

“Yeah, it’s cringey. But that’s just the way it is. Take it from a five-year observer of the game.”

Slight exaggeration on her part. Evidently, cheating was often more effective than working together, but she knew one person’s cheating would bring the rest of the team down with them, and make them _way_ too many enemies. Which would probably be worse for the Trials than it would be the real all-star show.

“So, just in case you wanted to know what was going on with the others…” Ian returned to the trolley, a CD in one hand, Kokichi behind him carrying a fair amount of candy, and pointed towards the freezers. The four made their way over, not really expecting what they saw there.

The four Total Drama veterans were crouched behind a medium-sized shelf of what looked like tea and coffee, a bunch of cheesy biscuits stacked in front of them. Shinjiro sat on the floor opposite them, video camera aimed at them, while Leon had half his body in the freezer, practically hanging on the door.

“He’s gonna break it, five bucks.”

“What the heck is that on his head?”

“It looks like a…lion hat.”

“Are…are they supposed to be singing _The Lion Sleeps Tonight_?”

“Whether they are or not, Leon’s butchering his note.”

“I know you just said to be a better person, but he should really stick to baseball.”

“Honestly, many people would agree.”

“Hey, is Kii-boy still stuck outside?”

* * *

 

The job had been long and difficult, more so than any of the faction’s other ones. Was it worth it? Absolutely not. Not only because of the lack of results, but how the others would react _to_ the lack of results.

It took a couple of extra days what with increased security at the Future Foundation getting in the way, but Haiji managed to make it back to the Neo Remnants house-slash-base.

Already sat in the living room was most of the others from the faction, unmistakable despite the darkness of the building. The two-toned bear hoodie belonging to Shiori, the soft glow coming from Saki’s blade, Reaper’s cotton candy blue hair compensating for her obscured face, the timid rookie Shion hovering over a box in the middle of the group. Still no signs of No. 6, however (he only called them that because they’d never offered up a nickname of their own…or even a real name).

As the door closed, all heads turned to him, although he made the first move in their briefing.

“So you finally decided to come back, Reaper? Took you long enough.”

“Not for long. Still got a bulk of my end of the job left to do. But what about you? _You_ sure took your time coming back. That much security?”

“Nothing I couldn’t handle though. This new addition of mine really packs a punch. Literally.”

“Good to hear,” Shiori took over. “But on the matter at hand, did you get the goods?”

He grimaced. “Surprisingly no. I checked everywhere I was told to, but nothing.” Not wanting to deal with Shiori’s assessment of this failure, he glanced to Shion, still hunched over. “What’s got you so intrigued?”

Shion knelt upright, revealing a box of half-eaten pizza. “I’d hurry, or I’ll have eaten it all.”

Realising his own hunger, Haiji sat down on the floor and grabbed a slice, not giving two shits about the toppings.

“So where’s No. 6 this time?”

“Calm down,” Reaper spoke. “He’s got work of his own to do. Remember just because you’ve had the hardest job, doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t bust our balls for Shiori over there.”

“Kept it kind of under wraps though, hasn’t he?”

“I want you to stop right there,” their leader said, not in an authoritative tone, but sounding more bored of the bickering before it even started. “It was at Reaper and Saki’s instruction.” The two nodded. “Besides, as long as everything goes according to plan, it doesn’t matter how much each member does, so long as there’s enough of a following. You saw how quickly it happened the first time – as long as there’s enough people who back what we do--”

She paused when she noticed Shion’s raised hand. “And what exactly _are_ we doing?”

Shiori cast a look at Haiji, still thinking about his suspicions towards No. 6. “Let’s just say, we’re continuing what Junko started.”

“You mean you’re going to plunge not only Japan into despair, but the world, for real this time?”

“I guess. Although that is more of a result from the main plan.”

Shion, Saki and Haiji exchanged looks of wonder, clearly out of the loop from the main plan, but Reaper just grinned.

“Oh, believe me,” Reaper said to the other three. “It’ll be more fun for you guys if we leave it a secret.”

“O…kay…” Shion bit into her fifth slice of pizza.

“But the problem is this: we needed Haiji’s plan to succeed for the plan to actually work better,” Shiori continued. “What I needed from the Future Foundation can undo any and all progress we make. Evidently, the Foundation is starting to get a clue, for whatever reason, as to what I plan to do, so moved it elsewhere. Obviously, there’s no way for us to know where they’re keeping it now, so instead, we’ll take a different approach. Saki?”

The older member held up a tablet, displaying what looked like a blog post. “Right now, the players from Total Drama, as well as many of the former Hope’s Peak students, are on Pahkitew Island right now, taking part in something called…the Trials.”

“Geez, who’d think of naming it that?”

“Apparently, the Future Foundation had one of its members murdered on the island during the first day, so the leaders heightened security, and would obviously be on their guard more.”

“How is this supposed to help us?” Haiji paused. “Hold on, so that means…”

“The leaders are on the island? Exactly.”

“So that’s the job you were talking about last time. The one all the leaders were preoccupied with. I thought they were a little too slow to catch onto me.”

“Don’t get the wrong idea, Haiji. You won’t actually be touching them next time.” He grumbled at Shiori’s interjection. “The fact that everyone’s together on the island means one thing – it’ll just be easier to deal with them.”

As the evening continued, Shiori explained the faction’s alternate plan for acquiring what they needed. Oddly enough, the second play for it wouldn’t actually involve locating the item and making a break for it, like Haiji had just tried. The _new_ plan was more strategic – as the chances of one of the higher-ups leaving it unattended were slim, it would be a better idea to target all the leaders at once in order to figure out who had it. Then if that didn’t work out, whoever _did_ have it wouldn’t have their protection.

“So, does that version of the plan work out for everyone?”

Haiji smirked maliciously, Saki simply smiled and nodded, and Shion just nodded in understanding too. Reaper, however, just laughed.

“Sure, that’s all well and good, but I hope you don’t mind if I add in a contribution of my own?”

“Go ahead. We’re all ears.”

“You see, it’d be more entertaining if…”


	23. Serendipity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Serendipity – n. finding something nice while looking for something else_
> 
> The words of one of the Huntsmen appears to have an influence on another, and the team might have just found their chance to get out of last place.

_Beaver Creek wasn’t a name Tomoko would tend to associate with a prison, but regardless, here she was – sat at a table in a waiting room, a plastic shopping bag sat at her feet. While waiting for the prisoners to be brought in, glancing down at her lap, she shuffled awkwardly on the uncomfortable plastic seat. All the things on her mind, yet she couldn’t even bring herself to confide any of them. Not even to him._

_Speak of the devil, the wardens started ushering the men into the visiting room, they themselves staying by the walls for the duration of the visiting time. As Chris came into the room, he stayed away from any of the tables and glanced between the visitors in confusion – possibly not expecting a visitor – until his eyes settled on Tomoko. He came over and pulled up a chair as Tomoko put the bag in front of her on the table._

_With the man closer now, Tomoko took note of the fact that Chris didn’t even look any different since he’d been incarcerated. Hair as perfect as ever, no weight loss…it astounded her how exactly he managed to pull it off._

_“I thought Chef was coming.”_

_“Nice to see you too,” she replied, no emotion evident in her voice, emptying the contents of her bag onto the table. “Here. Thought you might want a couple things. Tomato juice, hair gel…although it doesn’t look like you really need it.”_

_Chris sifted through the rest of the bag’s contents. “I dunno how much they’ll let me keep, but thanks anyway. This is why you were always my favourite intern!”_

_“You’re making it sound like I’m not interning anymore.”_

_“I mean…” He gestured to the rest of the room, indicating the current situation. “Look, I know you aren’t just here to see your boss in prison. That would be a bit creepy given the circumstances. If you have something to talk about, just cough it up and get out. This really isn’t the type of place you wanna stick around for too long.”_

_“You don’t know. Maybe there was a serious reason I decided to come here.”_

_He looked at her quizzically. “In all seriousness, everything okay?”_

_Again, Tomoko played with her shirt, tears starting to form in her eyes. She quickly wiped them away, looking Chris in the eyes._

_“########## died last year. And I didn’t even know.”_

_Chris actually looked at her with a far more sympathetic look, the likes of which hadn’t been seen on his face since the beginning of Total Drama. “Really? Oh, kid, I’m sorry. That’s gotta suck.”_

_“More so when the news doesn’t even reach you until a year and a half after it happened. And you don’t even ########### for two years.”_

_“How does that happen? You told me ################.”_

_“How am I supposed to know?”_

_“Okay, no offence, I get you need to vent or feel or, whatever. But couldn’t it be to someone who doesn’t have their own problems to deal with?”_

_Tomoko scowled at her boss, frustrated she hadn’t been expecting this sort of selfish reaction. They’d had a better relationship with one another than he had with the other interns, but as the years went on and Total Drama became more deadly, so had Chris’ personality. More selfish, more sadistic, less considerate of the contestants._

_Turns out that decrease in consideration extends to closer relations too._

_“You know, maybe the reason I came here was because there’s, unfortunately, nobody else I_ can _vent to.”_

_“That’s a load of crap. Chef, that Sato girl, the other interns…if it’s that bad, call your parents!”_

_“Chef isn’t the type of person I’d confide this sort of thing to, I’m not friends with the other interns…”_

_“And Sato? You know, the person you’re living with?”_

_“First of all, it’s_ Satoko _, and she’s busy enough as is with college and work. Lots of travelling, that sort of thing. And as for my parents…” she trailed off, hands going back to her shirt._

_“What?”_

_“No. Never mind. You wouldn’t get it.”_

_“All that fuss, and you don’t even give the full story?”_

_“My parents have nothing to do with ######!” Tomoko’s raised voice caught the attention of the rest of the prisoners and visitors, earning her some raised eyebrows from the wardens._

_“Whatever,” she pushed the bag to Chris and stood up. “I don’t know why I bothered. Later, McLean.”_

_#################_

_In hushed conversation with one of the wardens, Tomoko noticed a smart-looking blond man, probably no older than herself. Other than the black suit, his glasses and overall manner while dealing with the other men gave her the impression that he was highly sophisticated…and potentially as arrogant as she would expect someone like that to be. It was only when he turned to face her that it clicked._

_Byakuya Togami._

_Unaware she’d said the man’s name out loud, it startled her a little when he actually turned away from his conversation to face her. He walked away from the other man, approaching her._

_“Are you Byakuya Togami? The SHSL Affluent Progeny?”_

_“Why does that matter to you?” He even sounded kind of arrogant._

_“I think you #############”_

_#################################################_

* * *

 

Tomoko was roused from her extended dream as the white noise in her head changed to a loud grinding. Thankfully, there was no Kokichi kneeling on top of her this time, but he too appeared to have been woken up by whatever the noise was. She got a vague idea of where it came from when she glanced towards the mini kitchen in the corner of the cabin.

“Oh right. We have a coffee maker.”

But not many people around to use it, apparently. The only people present right now were Tomoko’s trio and whoever was making the coffee.

“Don’t tell me I overslept again.”

“Where is everyone?”

“Showers. Been gone for five minutes.”

The three looked towards the mini kitchen. Sat at their table, still in his boxers and holding a mug of coffee, was Jacques.

“And you’re not with them, why?”

“I’m showering later on.” He took a sip of his drink. “Yours are over on the counter.”

“What? Our drinks?”

The three looked towards the counter. Sure enough, three other mugs sat there, each one full of something. And although they appreciated the gesture, they had no idea why it had been made. Regardless, they each got out of bed and picked up their mugs – Kiibo’s was plain black, Tomoko’s had a sakura design, and Kokichi’s was simply white with the Panta logo (someone had dug it up during the shopping trip).

“I hate to burst your bubble,” Tomoko slid into a seat, “but I don’t drink coffee. Remember the eating challenge?”

“I know. It’s a hot chocolate with a little coffee in it. Like a reverse mocha.”

Tomoko experimentally took a small sip of it as Kiibo addressed Jacques directly.

“Needless to say, this is quite unexpected. What caused you to do this?”

“I’ve been thinking. The team’s currently in last place, _non_? And fair to say, everyone in it wants to win, or else we wouldn’t even be here.”

“Actually I just came along because if I didn’t I’d be--”

“ _So_ ,” Jacques continued over Kokichi’s interruption, “it would be in everyone’s best interests if the entire team actually tried cooperating in the challenges, rather than just staying in their own groups. In other words, I want to make more of an effort to get along with the team.”

Tomoko stopped her drinking in surprise, already halfway through the ‘reverse-mocha’. “Holy crap, you’re taking my rambling seriously.”

“I see. So you’re trying to win everyone over with drinks? Given the fact one of us doesn’t drink coffee and another _can’t_ drink, it hasn’t exactly worked out in your favour so far.”

“That reminds me,” Tomoko continued, “you said you can’t eat, but _can_ you even drink?”

“Actually, I can now.” Kiibo pointed to his middle. “My latest upgrade had Iruma-san fit me with my own equivalent of a stomach. Located here in my body is a box where any consumed liquids are deposited. When it fills to a certain point, the box heats in order to evaporate the liquid, and the leftovers get kept inside my body to serve as a reserve source of energy.”

“Woah!” Kokichi leaned in towards him. “That’s actually cool for once! What happened to Iruma-chan to inspire her with that? _Oh_ , right, guess it was because of her--” Tomoko slapped a hand over his mouth before he could finish that sentence.

“Do you mean that, Ouma-kun?”

“But if you have that function, why haven’t you had any coffee yet?”

“Actually, I have not ever used it before. Needless to say, I’m a little nervous.”

“Come on then! If I can drink it and like it, I’m sure you can.”

Kiibo ‘gulped’ nervously, before taking almost half the coffee at once. He stood in front of the table for a few moments, showing no visible reaction to the drink.

“So, how was it?”

“I’m not sure. It doesn’t taste anything like its scent.”

“Iruma-chan wins some, and loses some. Why would anyone build a robot who could drink things but not taste them?” At that moment, Kokichi seemed to come to a realisation. “Wait, so that means not only you can’t taste things, but you can’t feel the effects of them either?”

“It would appear so, although it’s still a little too early to tell.”

Kokichi jumped up onto his back, knocking the mug from his hand. “In that case, let’s get him some vodka and see what happens! Someone go find Kizakura-chan!”

“What?! But we’re still in high school!”

“Since when is age of any concern to a hunk of junk like you?”

Tomoko and Jacques watched in amusement as the bickering continued, Tomoko being more accustomed to their behaviour.

“How’s the drink?”

“Oh. Uh, it’s actually not bad. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

It was then they both noticed that the fighting between Kokichi and Kiibo had stopped, and Kokichi’s attention was now turned away from the robot and towards the cabin door, now slightly ajar.

“What’s up?”

“You guys are so stupid. How did we not figure this out before?”

The other three exchanged a lost look.

“Hello? Ian’s mystery girl! It’s Miku!”

They all looked out the front door. Straight in front of them, a slightly red Miku stood opposite Ian, who visibly hadn’t showered. In Miku’s hand was a CD.

“Hold on. Did he buy that CD just to give it to her? Did he write one of the songs on it?”

“So she made those desserts in Ian’s lunchbox?”

“Take my word for it, as someone who already knows her – DJ may be the Sandwich Boss, and Teruteru might be king of the kitchen, but when it comes to desserts, Miku is a _goddess_.”

“So, are we telling him or not? Or does he already know?”

“Nah. I say we let it happen. Unlike with Leon and Sayaka, they actually look cute together.”

“You know just because they look cute together, that doesn’t mean their relationship is good enough.”

“Oh God, I’m turning into Ibuki.”

…

After the rest of the team finished showering, Shinjiro had pulled Tomoko aside while the rest of the team went to breakfast.

“Okay, talk to me, sis. You have that look.”

“What look?”

“The look you’ve been wearing more and more this year. The one that means you’re thinking about something. Is this about the amnesia?”

“I don’t see what else it could be.”

“Okay then.” He sat himself on the grass. “So what happened? Painful? Distracting? Someone in there who probably shouldn’t have been?”

“No, no…it was more like a dream this time; and yes. I can only assume that means I knew them.”

“Who was it then?”

“Right, this is going to sound weird, but…”

Tomoko looked in all directions before responding, still leaning in to his ear and whispering.

“Togami.”

Shinjiro didn’t respond for a couple of seconds, eventually bursting into laughter.

“I know, I know. Remember when Chris was arrested after season four? For all the toxic waste stuff? I was visiting him in prison at some point between then and season five. It…looked like there was something I wanted to tell him, but there was so much missing that I can’t really figure out what it was. I got annoyed, left, and then saw Togami there.”

“That’s it? No reason as to what he was even doing there?”

“Nope.”

“I guess you could just ask him.”

“If you knew Togami like I do, it wouldn’t do to ask him outright.”

“Like you do?”

Tomoko hesitated momentarily, thinking of how to respond. While they did tend to confide in one another about their situation on occasion, Tomoko still omitted several details, including her involvement in the project.

“Well, like I _probably_ do. It’s a sign of memories to come, I’m taking it.”

“Hm. Fair enough.”

On the other side of the cabin, many voices became audible. The pair, intrigued, glanced round the side of the cabin to investigate. Apparently, Chris had sprung a surprise announcement, and sounded like he was already halfway through it.

Tomoko pulled Shinjiro back, however, before they could join everyone.

“What now?”

“I don’t exactly know if this is relevant, but there was something else that happened. It looked like I was upset about something, it sounds like someone dying…and then our parents were involved at one point?”

This caught Shinjiro’s attention. “Our parents? What could people like them possibly be caught up in involving Byakuya and Chris?”

Another thing she hadn’t yet caught him up on – their involvement with the Future Foundation. Granted, having grown up with different relatives in the West, she didn’t know if he’d really care.

“I don’t know. It didn’t sound like…well…uh…”

“I get it. Most of it was tuned out. I’m sure you’ll learn what it’s all about eventually.”

“Hopefully.”

“Now let’s go see what’s planned to torture us this week.”

The pair walked round to the front, joining everyone else in the meeting area, and tuned into Chris’ continued explanation, trying to catch up with the rest of the announcement. “Again, thanks to the number of teams competing, this series of challenges will span two days. Also, where usually we do things in a certain order – first place male to last place female teams – for these challenges, we’ll be working in the reverse of that. On top of that, it should ideally be something representing one of the members of your team.

“You guys have fifteen minutes to come up with your challenge, and the rules for it. Snap to it, players!”

…

“So the theme this week is Create Your Own week?”

“Yep. He said we’re coming up with the challenges ourselves for the first half. Apparently, Chris finally ran out of steam.”

“So anyone got any ideas?”

The OG Three plus Brody had already got a pretty detailed plan down. “We’re just putting a spin on the old bike race challenge from season one. Only this time, their bikes have to be representative of their teams.”

“Okay. That works out.”

While they’d all been planning, everyone else had scattered themselves around the cabin coming up with other backup ideas, on the off chance someone else chose the same thing. Leon, however, lay face down on the bed, having made no contributions of his own.

“Come on, Kuwata-chan!” Kokichi waved a notepad and pen in his direction. “We need a hand coming up with all the traps and stuff!”

“Kokichi! Give me back that notebook!”

“Oh, calm down, you have that many other ones.”

“What’s the point?” Leon’s voice sounded muffled against his pillow. “We’re just gonna lose again.”

“Says who?”

“Says the last two weeks. We haven’t won a single challenge so far.”

“Well, maybe not.”

“You want to know why we lost?” Jacques asked. “Maybe we just weren’t that good at the challenges.”

Geoff looked over at him in surprise. “Woah, woah…did you just say _we_ weren’t that good? As in, the entire team? Including you?”

“Or rather, the other teams were better.”

“Even so, what difference does that make?”

“All the previous challenges were specific…cooking, eating, personal trivia…stuff not everyone would necessarily be good at. This time, though, if everyone does their own thing, there’s probably going to be more of a mix. And because we have such a mix of skills…no matter how irrelevant…we’re more likely to do better.”

Jacques’ surprising motivation appeared to make the mood significantly lighter, most of the team cluing into what he was implying.

DJ climbed onto the table. “Yeah! Jacques’ right, you guys! No doubt there’ll be at least one thing we can use! We’ve got Geoff’s optimism, Brody’s durability, Ian’s musical ability, Shinjiro’s anime knowledge…”

“Which is bound to come into play eventually.”

“…Kokichi’s intelligence, Kiibo’s features, Duncan’s resourcefulness, Jacques’ athleticism, Tomoko’s experience, and Leon’s…uh…”

An awkward silence fell over the cabin, with the exception of Duncan and Kokichi trying to stifle their laughter, all while Leon continued to lie face-down on his bed, now with a new feeling of depression.

“Love you too, guys.”


	24. Create Your Own Challenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So...it's been a month...  
> University work has been kicking my ass recently. Couple that with working on some other ideas, and the fact that I'm bored with this part of the story but can't skip it...yeah, this one's pretty bad. But I'll tell you, writing with Comic Sans works!  
> Expect the next ones to be out in kind of a similar time frame, at least until I manage to figure out my work-life balance.

With the teams working in reverse to the norm, the first challenge location was the Immortals & Victorious Secret campsite. Outside the tents was a row of tables filled with various materials, sewing equipment and old pieces of clothing. Stood in front of the tables were both Chris and Tsumugi, the rest of Victorious Secret behind it.

“So, quick reminder. One person per team completes each challenge, and every team member should go at least one, except for the Hammerheads, where one of you will have to sit out. Alright, Tsumugi. Start off our Create Your Own challenge week!”

“Alright. Our team’s come up with a cosplay challenge. The players will have to use the materials available to them in order to create, then model, a cosplay of your own creation. The costume must belong to an existing fictional character, although it doesn’t necessarily have to be an anime character. Oh, right, and you can only use what’s here. Nothing extra you owned already. You have thirty minutes to put something together.”

Tsumugi went quiet for a moment, seeming to ponder something. Although she was finished her introduction, none of the teams knew what to do now. Wait? Get started?

“You know you can think and get materials at the same time, don’t you?”

“So we’ve already started?”

The eleven players ran over to the table and started almost fighting over materials. Some of those who were more serious about the challenge, after getting the right materials, then sifted through Tsumugi’s collection of wigs, colour contacts and make-up. A couple weren’t even looking for that much in terms of creating their clothing, instead looking at the props on offer.

The methods of creation differed from person to person too. Rantaro took to cutting out pieces of cardboard and taping them onto his body, Justin put together a bunch of items from the pile of old clothing, Shinjiro simply added extras to existing items, while Junko & Ibuki took the traditional approach and doing all their own handiwork.

Once the thirty minutes passed, Chris caught everyone’s attention one last time before handing over full control to the players.

“Times up! Now before Tsumugi starts judging, there’s yet again something I forgot to mention. Rankings are mostly the same as usual, except we’ve scrapped the nine points and seven points, and replaced it with last place getting no points. Like with the Halloween challenge, the points from this challenge don’t go to your overall total, and will be replaced at the end.”

“Okay, right off the bat,” Tsumugi looked at a few of the cosplays, “I can see who’s going to be in last place.”

“Heh, this kind of thing really isn’t my strong suit,” Nekomaru said, with no differences to his usual appearance.

“Hmm…Harukawa-san, Yumeno-san, neither of you look very different, either.”

Maki’s only addition was a fake sword from the prop pile, while Himiko simply tacked a handmade symbol onto a piece of black material in order to make a cape, in order to look like a Hogwarts student.

“Again, I’m not the best at making costumes, but I’ve been told I look like a sword wielding character on occasion.”

“In that case, Harukawa-san tenth, Yumeno-san ninth.”

Before making any other decisions, Tsumugi got a better look at the remaining players: Junko pulled off an impressive Poison Ivy cosplay; Hifumi’s Princess Piggles costume was incredibly convincing yet disturbing; Rantaro had attempted someone from Halo, although the parts were all falling off his body; Mahiru managed to throw together a quick Power Rangers outfit, not having any other ideas; Justin’s superhero costume ended up giving him even more female admirers; and then…

“Oh, Naegi-kun! Yours is really accurate!”

Makoto smiled nervously. “All I did was throw on a uniform type outfit…”

“I know! And you’re really selling that generic protagonist look!”

“Uh, right…”

“Hm? Where are Shinjiro-kun and Mioda-san?”

“Hold on a moment,” Ibuki called from behind the changing booth. “Something fell out of his outfit up top! Hm, and pin that up there…okay, done!”

The pair of them stepped away from the changing booth, and the remaining players were immediately blown away.

Shinjiro stood on the left, sporting a long blonde wig, red contacts, aviators and what looked like a genderbent outfit. As for Ibuki…

“I-is that…Erza Scarlet’s Ataraxia armour complete with its blade wings? Made entirely from scratch?!”

“Of course! Ibuki makes all her own costumes from scratch!”

“In that case, we have a winner! And Shinjiro-kun, second place for taking the genderbend route!”

“Genderbend? Would it be genderbent if I had this wig? And _these_?” He pointed to his chest, pushed out thanks to a few scraps of fabric lying about.

“I’m assuming that’s what fell out before.”

_Round One results: Makoto (6 th), Maki (10th), Shinjiro (2nd), Ibuki (1st), Nekomaru (11th), Junko (4th), Rantaro (8th), Mahiru (7th), Justin (3rd), Himiko (9th), Hifumi (5th), N/A_

…

While the cosplay contestants got changed back into their regular clothes, Korekiyo took the lead on the Immortals challenge, still based at the campsite. The eleven players for this round were sat on logs, their partners in front of them.

“Each elected player has a sketchbook and pencil. The challenge itself is quite simple – simply sketch a caricature of your partner in fifteen minutes. The final product will be judged by myself, and any incomplete drawings won’t be counted.”

The eleven players immediately got started on their drawings, making the most of the fifteen minutes they were given. While some of them were frantically scribbling things down with little concern what the end product would be, the more skilled ones took great care and worked swiftly. Every so often, the players would stop momentarily when Korekiyo looked over their shoulder, unnerved by how the anthropologist was ‘working’.

As the fifteen minutes came to an end, Korekiyo stood behind the subjects of the caricatures. “Time’s up.”

“Wait! One more minute!”

“Sorry, Anne Maria. I noticed that Mitarai-kun was the first to finish, so would you care to present first?”

Ryota’s drawing had the Imposter in an anime style, although instead of his natural appearance, he’d been drawn to look like some popular anime character, but it was still obviously him.

“Very good. It uses your own personal style and serves as a caricature.”

Carrie and Angie had also finished quickly, so were next to be looked over. Carrie’s drawing of Ella was very professional looking, although not too much like a caricature; Angie chose to draw both Tenko & Himiko in a more abnormal, borderline demonic style. Both of them received similar praise from Korekiyo.

Tom’s drawing of Trent, Kazuichi’s sketch of Fuyuhiko, and Komaru’s manga-esque image of Genocider were all praised too, the latter being the favoured most out of the three. Duncan’s drawing of DJ didn’t really “have any style going into it” but still met the criteria. Sayaka’s was far more disjointed than all the others, Chihiro’s honestly looked like an elementary schooler had done it, Sakura’s…looked nothing like Hina, and not even in a caricature way.

“Hold on! You didn’t give mine a look!” Anne Maria waved her, surprisingly impressive, drawing of Sugar. It had her in her Darwin’s Food Safari cow suit, although this time she was more cow than person, and triggered laughter from everyone but Sugar. The only issue…

“I apologise, but I did say at the beginning that incomplete works wouldn’t be considered. Last place.”

“That takes care of that,” Chris came back into the picture (no pun intended), “but I understand there’s still a three-way tie for first. Well, Kiyo, it’s your challenge. Your call who wins.”

“Carrie, Ryota and Angie’s caricatures are all exceptional in their own ways. Each of the different styles really adds something to each one.” Korekiyo pondered his decision. “I cannot choose just one. It’s a tie.”

“Then it’s decided! Carrie, Ryota, Angie, twelve points each!”

_Round 2 results: Chihiro (9 th), Sakura (10th), Duncan (7th), Sayaka (8th), Kazuichi (6th), Komaru (4th), Tom (5th), Carrie (=1st), Ryota (=1st), Angie (=1st), N/A, Anne Maria (11th)_

…

For round three, the group moved to the clearing. The only thing available for them was a pack of cards per person, drawing everyone’s attention to Himiko.

“Nyeeh…as the SHSL Magician, I know a great number of spells. For this challenge, you have to perform an entry level card trick. The instructions are on the table. You can practice five times, then have to do it for real.”

All the players picked up a deck of cards each, attempting to recreate the trick – making a selected card rise out of a deck. About five minutes was spent with each person reading the instructions and getting their hand positioning right.

Quite a lot of people couldn’t quite get a grasp on how to do it – Kiibo’s fingers couldn’t push the card out of the pile properly, Dave and Hiyoko were making the secret of the trick too obvious, and Sky dropped the deck by accident, causing her to completely lose Himiko’s card.

Cameron and Beth were both stiff with it, and pushed up the wrong card, but at the very least were able to do the sleight-of-hand part. It took Chiaki a while longer than the others, but she managed to pull it off successfully too. And among the top three were a few surprises.

“Woah, Dirt Boy.” Scott was one of those people. “How’d you manage to pull that one off?”

“Let’s just say I’m a master at sleight of hand.”

“Can I get a band-aid?” Mickey, his hand now riddled with papercuts, shouted. He too had almost perfectly pulled it off, but in the eyes of the magician, only one person did it no problem.

“Akamatsu, you have impressive levels of MP.”

“It’s only because you showed me this trick a year ago.”

And with all that out of the way, there was only one person left to go.

“Feast your eyes, as I now lift your chosen card from the deck, using only my _magic_ powers!” Leonard held the deck out in one hand, and waved the other one dramatically in the air. “ _Ten of Clubs-us…Levitatus!”_

As expected, nothing happened. The awkward stunt in activity wasn’t broken until a good ten seconds had passed.

“It really is at least cooler when Himiko does it. And I never thought I’d hear myself say that.”

“And it was the three of diamonds.”

“Well _obviously_ , this is because _still_ nobody believes in me!”

“Dude, you’re literally talking to the SHSL Magician. Give it a rest for once.”

_Round 3 results: Mickey (2 nd), Sky (10th), Kiibo (9th), Kaede (1st), Scott (4th), Chiaki (3rd), Cameron (6th), Hiyoko (7th), Dave (8th), N/A, Leonard (11th), Beth (5th)_

…

For part four, the teams moved away from the main area and onto the beach. Stretching out across the beach was a rather poorly constructed obstacle course type thing. While the selected players stood at one end of it, and the rest of them were off to the side watching, Lorenzo and Chet stood at the beginning of the course.

“The challenge we came up with is much cooler than the last ones you were made to do!”

“This beauty in front of you is something we’ve been using for our parkour kung fu, only this time minus the kung fu part.”

“If you know how parkour works, you know how the challenge works – get from here to there, as fast as possible, without touching the ground!”

“Fall off, and it’s back to the start.”

“Ready…” Chet pulled Chris’ airhorn out from under his shirt. “Go!”

A lot of the players weren’t incredibly confident when it came to this particular challenge. Unsurprisingly, Jasmine and Mike took the lead, with Amy, Tomoko and Hina not far behind. The course was comprised of propped-up sheets of metal, large stacks of crates and barrels, a rope swing, and all the makings of a crappy miniature replica of a city.

For more than half of the course, Jasmine was in the lead, with Mike constantly a few steps behind. Tyler had surprisingly matched them at one point, only to lose his footing and eat sand soon after. Dakota and Shuichi opted to slowly make their way over, following the easiest possible routes and taking extra care to not fall off. Katie and Beardo constantly fell off the obstacles, not even too far from the start. In the middle, Hina, Tomoko and Amy and Tenko were all mostly on par with one another, every so often one of them slipping in front of the others.

On reaching the last section of the course, Jasmine and Mike were still there, surveying how best to approach it, when the four girls appeared behind them. In front of the group was a rather large jump to the finish line, the only things available to them were a couple of poles in the ground, some monkey bars and other things to swing over with.

But before any of them could make a start, the wood under their feet creaked and began to break away. With nobody expecting this, they each grabbed onto whatever would keep them off the floor – the support beams, one of the bars, each other – and only Amy was forced to start over (much to her anger).

Even when someone started crossing the pit, things were breaking. About three-quarters of the way over the monkey bars, which Jasmine had been the first to jump onto, almost every rung spontaneously fell out of its spot and onto the sand.

“I know we didn’t plan all of this,” Lorenzo nudged his brother, “but it just made things so much cooler!” The sight of all eleven players either eating sand or stuck in the same spot for a good minute caused the pair to crack up.

Thanks to her survivalist abilities, Jasmine managed to land on one of the poles in the ground as the monkey bars fell apart, but was now stuck with no obvious way to the end. The only other person from the leading five to take any action now was Tomoko, since everyone else’s positions made it currently impossible.

Tomoko jumped off the remains of the platform and hopped a couple of the poles before reaching the same point as Jasmine. Instead of shoving her off, she chose to instead climb up her in order to reach the remains of the monkey bars…or rather, parallel bars, to shuffle the rest of the way over. The method payed off, as Tomoko became the first to reach the end, finally getting her team a win.

“Good job, mate,” Jasmine praised her as she arrived behind her. “Where’d that come from?”

“Four years of testing challenges is a good strength builder. And makes you more open to changes Chris can throw into the mix.”

Behind the two girls, Mike, Tenko, Hina and Amy also hit the finish line.

“All that’s left is to wait for everyone else,” Amy said, watching as both Tyler and Beardo bit the dust again.

“We might be here a while then.”

_Round 4 results: Shuichi (9 th), Hina (5th), Tomoko (1st), Amy (6th), Tyler (8th), Dakota (7th), Mike (3rd), Jasmine (2nd), N/A, Tenko (4th), Beardo (11th), Katie (10th)_

…

Round five took everyone back to the clearing, this time right outside the woods. Jasmine took control of this part for the girls.

“Although this island may be artificial, there is still a vast amount of foods you can find in these woods. Believe me, I would know. Whichever players you’ve selected will be given a list, and have ten minutes to go into these woods, and come back with as many different foods as possible. Just be sure to approach certain things in there with caution – unlike Chris, I don’t want anyone getting needlessly injured.” Amy shuddered at the memory of the manchineel fruit.

The list had fifteen items on it, including some more simple & recognisable things like cherries and blackberries, as well as items Jasmine had already seen on her time on the island, like manchineel fruits (obviously) and Chinese mulberries. Obviously, in keeping with the general idea of Total Drama, it wasn’t going to be as easy as walking up to a bush and pulling something off it. Whether Jasmine had planned that or not.

While Shawn, Gonta and Izzy were miles ahead of everyone else in terms of their progress, opting to search in the trees, everyone else was forced not only to race to the limited supplies on the ground, but also fend off the robot animals that started swarming the area. As a result, most people were too preoccupied with avoiding injury than they were with finishing the challenge…this didn’t stop large numbers of the players from getting injured anyway.

“Chris,” Jasmine turned to the host as the remaining contestants heard the varying levels of carnage from within the woods, “I thought I said there wouldn’t be any dangerous animals during the challenge.”

“You did, but it’s been weeks on this island without any kind of drama. I need to be satisfied in some way!”

_Round 5 results: Shawn (1 st), Izzy (3rd), Kokichi (6th), Sierra (9th), Ryan (11th), Scarlett (7th), Gonta (2nd), N/A, Chet (10th), Laurie (8th), Ezekiel (4th), Sugar (5th)_

…

Round six took place in the same area, and unfortunately for the next lot, the animals weren’t being removed.

“The challenge Gonta has created for you all is to befriend one of the animals in the woods in fifteen minutes, then bring it back here!”

“Psst, Gonta,” Topher leaned in closer to him. “You do realise that most of the animals on the island are robots, right?”

“It’s no problem! If Kiibo has the same feelings as a human, then it must be the same for these ones!”

“N-no, that’s not how it…never mind. More fun for us, I guess.”

Among the animals in the woods were the staple creatures of Pahkitew Island, such as Scuba/Pasta/Bling Bear, but Chris had found a way to make things worse by incorporating the mutants from Boney Island, even though the islands were on totally opposite ends of Canada.

Not surprising anyone, Dawn had almost immediately returned to the clearing with a three-eyed gopher on her shoulder, and Gundam wasn’t too far behind, with his Twelve Zodiac Generals & a squirrel which shoots lightning all balanced on his arm, while casting a look at Chris in regards to the whole mutated animal thing.

And right behind them was Izzy.

“How did you do that so quickly?”

“I met this little guy while I was foraging!” She petted the normal squirrel on her head. “He helped me find everything!”

Thankfully, DJ had also managed to find a normal animal out there, shown by the smile on his face and the white rabbit in his arms (“What is this, his third one now?” “Looks like we’ll be having one more teammate.”).

What did come as a shock, though, was Toko’s speedy return, one hand closed into a light fist. She walked straight to Gonta and opened her hand, revealing a stinkbug.

“I used to have one a few years back, s-so this wasn’t much of a problem.”

Topher begged to differ. “Last I checked, this was an _animal_ buddy challenge--”

“Gonta approves, Fukawa-san!”

It took a while before the next group returned. Crimson carried a dark parasol in one hand, with a sleeping bat revealed underneath it, Bridgette had another gopher in a firm grip between her two hands, and Jay very warily walked beside Scuba/Bling/Pasta Bear (sans the scuba gear, jewellery or blindfold). Soon after, Lindsay ran screaming from the woods, a large yeti in hot pursuit.

Brick emerged next, also not having had any luck making an animal buddy, given the beaver in his arms was whacking him in the face repeatedly with its tail.

And last but ~~not~~ least was Hagakure, a fish in one hand and a wide grin on his face.

“Uh, Hiro, what’s with the fish?”

“It’s for the animal buddy challenge!”

“You do realise it’s dead, right?”

Hagakure looked at it, and his eyes widened. “Damn it. I forgot.”

“Well, Hagakure-san loses.”

“And this surprises you, how?” Noah’s comment from the crowd caused the clairvoyant to glare at him.

_Round 6 results: Jay (8 th), Izzy (3rd), DJ (4th), Bridgette (7th), Brick (10th), Toko (5th), N/A, Crimson (6th), Hagakure (11th), Dawn (1st), Gundam (2nd), Lindsay (9th)_

<p></p>

Day two of the ‘Create Your Own Challenge’ challenge kicked off, unlike all the previous ones, indoors, in the talent lab. While before all the non-participants could observe, the space was only big enough for the eleven players and the leader for this round, Chiaki.

The eleven were sat in front of a large monitor, each one with their own controller.

“The objective of this game is simple: win. What you’re about to play is a simple combat game. Last one standing wins. Thanks to Iruma-san for making the eleven-player element possible.”

“Does that mean my team gets extra points because I helped?”

“Hmmm…nope.”

“Whore.”

“What kind of game is it anyway?”

“Like I said, it’s a multiplayer fighting game. Whoever lasts longer than everyone else wins.”

With no explanation on the controls, Chiaki booted up the game. Within seconds, for this very reason, Mahiru’s character was knocked off the platform by Sam.

“Well, I’ve never been the best at games, anyway.”

“OH, COME ON!” Kaito’s reaction to being eliminated, this time by Kitty, was far different.

While most of the remaining players were focused on dodging each other, MacArthur, Miu and Cody were engaged in direct combat.

“Gyahaha! That the best you can do, bitch?!”

“You ain’t got nothing on me, lady!”

“I’d spend less time arguing and focus on the game. Take this!” Cody hit two buttons and his character unleashed a large explosive attack, knocking both girls out of the game, right before he himself was caught off guard by Geoff.

Akane was next to be booted off, again by Geoff, while Sam and Hajime had timed their attacks together to obliterate Max’s character.

“Only four people left,” Chiaki stated. Sam, Hajime, Geoff and Kitty.

“Chiaki, did you give Hajime lessons or something? Because I didn’t think he’d be this good!”

“Not exactly. We just played together a lot.”

“Darn it!” Geoff dropped his controller in frustration as Sam unleashed his character’s own attack. “So close!”

“Oh, come on!” As soon as Geoff had been beaten, Kitty was right behind him.

With the final two left over, each of the eliminated players chose a side to root for. Sam and Hajime’s battle went on for a good five minutes extra.

“This is getting’ close!”

“I thought only Chiaki could match Sam’s level!”

“Oh, wait, this is it!”

The challenge ended with Sam’s character’s ultimate attack, blowing Hajime away before he could have a chance to retaliate. The other nine erupted with cheers, Hajime setting his own controller down with a sigh.

“Good game.”

_Round 7: Kaito (10 th), MacArthur (8th), Geoff (4th), Kitty (3rd), Hajime (2nd), N/A, Cody (7th), Mahiru (11th), Sam (1st), Akane (6th), Max (5th), Miu (9th)_

…

Back on the beach, where Team Victory 2.0’s parkour course had been the day before, was now a larger recreation of the Basic Straining course from season one – three walls, three more walls of tyres, multiple larger rope swings, and a slightly less dangerous mud crawl – which Brick stood at the end of.

“Listen up, soldiers! The challenge is simple – reach the end of the obstacle course first, and your team gets the points! That’s all there is to it!” He blew a whistle. “Begin!”

The number of players capable of doing this challenge against the number of players who weren’t was about a 50/50 split. The likes of Rock, Beth and Mikan kept on tripping themselves up (often literally) at the different stages…at least, when the latter two actually managed to get over the wall. They only managed to after using the equally struggling Teruteru as a stepping stone.

Further ahead of them were Junior and Miku, both proving to be more athletic than anyone may have thought. Despite this, each of them were slowed down at certain points.

Ryoma’s height and agility from tennis gave him an easier time of the obstacle course, but still wasn’t enough to put him into the lead. Leon was mostly in the same boat, only screwing up more often.

The remaining three players – Stephanie, Sanders and Zoey – were in close competition for first. Zoey’s inner commando and Stephanie’s strength proved effective enough, but Sanders’ own experience from the police academy paved the way to a victory for the Athletes…oddly enough, their first one this challenge.

“Impressive, Sanders!” Brick congratulated her as she crossed the finish. “Just over a minute!”

“I was best at the obstacle courses back at the academy.”

Stephanie and Zoey made it to the finish line some seconds later, with Leon dragging himself over the line right behind them.

As Ryoma, Miku and Junior all came into view, Brick squinted into the distance.

“Anyone seen the others?”

Way back at the walls, Teruteru was attempting to pull himself over the third and final wall, simultaneously nursing a nosebleed…whether from a broke nose, or him just being himself remained to be seen.

_Round 8: Ryoma (5 th), Sanders (1st), Leon (4th), Miku (6th), N/A, Mikan (10th), Junior (7th), Stephanie (2nd), Rock (8th), Zoey (3rd), Teruteru (11th), Beth (9th)_

…

Kaede tugged at the collar of her V-sweater as the chosen players returned to the talent lab. “Okay, this one looks a lot more difficult than all the previous ones. For this challenge, each of you will take it in turns to play the following piano extract. It’s only a minute long, but quite complex. So, who wants to try first?”

Nobody came forward for a while, until Staci took the seat, Sierra coming forward to fill the job of page turner. Surprising everyone, despite making a fair few mistakes, she managed to pull off the same tune of the same upbeat and lively extract, possibly even taking the time to simplify the music as she was reading it. The impressive performance garnered applause from the rest of the group.

“Where’d you learn how to do that?”

“Let me guess, your grandfather was one of the greatest pianists in Canada?”

“Exactly!”

Noah followed her up, doing a somewhat similar job to Staci, although after them, Nagito, Celeste and Ella didn’t perform anywhere near as good. Unsurprisingly, Trent did a good job, as did Mary; Peko ended up taking three minutes to reach the end of the minute long piece, and Korekiyo also didn’t seem to manage the challenge that well.

Only two people were left over from there – Ian and the Imposter.

“Mind if I go next?” The Imposter asked Ian.

“Sure, go ahead.”

They took the seat and immediately took to playing, and once again everyone was astounded. He didn’t make any changes to the tempo or tone of it, just read the sheet music and played off it as though it was second nature. Upon noticing everyone’s reactions, while continuing to play, he addressed their internal questions.

“I’m an imposter. When you’re me, you never know who you’ll have to fill the role of next.”

Eventually, he too was met with applause upon reaching the end, and he traded places with Ian. He paused a moment to scan over the music in front of him.

“Hmm…okay…right…I don’t think I’ve ever even written something this complex.”

Regardless, he took to playing the piece, and like Staci, appeared to be making subtle changes to it. The original one was written to be fast and lively, but Ian managed to alter it in order to make it softer and more delicate, while managing to maintain the same tune.

His rendition was also met with an ovation from the rest of the group, Kaede beaming with delight at it. Following a few brief seconds of thinking, she stood beside the piano and gave her verdict.

“Sorry, Ian. I know we’re in a superteam, but you didn’t play the piece as it was given, so I have to give the win to Team Victory 2.0!”

“We are?”

“Well, we’re working on it.”

_Round 9: Noah (6 th), Peko (11th), Ian (2nd), N/A, Nagito (7th), Celeste (8th), Trent (4th), Ella (9th), Imposter (1st), Staci (5th), Korekiyo (10th), Mary (3rd)_

…

All throughout the second day, the people who weren’t taking part in any challenges were taking part in the introduction of the Huntsmen’s challenge. Once Kaede’s results had been given, Ian returned to the rest of his teammates in order to watch over the bike racing challenge, panting and out of breath.

“Have we started yet?”

“Just now, actually,” DJ looked towards the dust cloud in the distance.

“Well? How’s it looking so far?”

“Mondo pulled a Heather and essentially made a motorbike, Tammy’s is something probably only Leonard and Shinjiro will understand, and I swear to God Ibuki’s is powered by a flamethrower.”

“Does it work?”

On cue, there was an explosion in the distance, followed by screaming. “Apparently not.”

The course itself wasn’t much like the original one from Total Drama Island. While the oil slick had been carried over, all the rest had been removed. Instead, Geoff, Brody, Duncan and Leon stood off to the side and fired projectiles of varying types and sizes at the players. Mondo and B were mostly unfazed by the barrage, due to the speed of their bikes making it easy for them to get through it.

As for the others, Jo and Mukuro caught them and threw them towards their competition, taking out Spud and Rodney in the process. While the others took the brunt of the attacks, they all managed to stay on their bikes.

As they all passed by, Duncan reached for a walkie-talkie on his person. “Yeah, Shinji, Jacques, Kokichi. Pay extra attention to Jo and Mukuro. They’re practically immune.”

Leon tossed one last projectile towards Ibuki’s bike, unfortunately jamming it and causing the flamethrower underneath it to explode.

“Well, that’s what she gets. You’d think she’d put it down for once in her life.”

“ _Alright! Got ‘em!_ ” Kokichi’s voice came over the walkie-talkie. “ _Ikusaba-chan got knocked off!”_

“For the SHSL Soldier, didn’t see that one coming.”

“ _It was from behind her. Sammy was saving a balloon from your part of the course.”_

“Good to see things going alright on your end. Kiibo, Tomoko, any winners?”

“ _Mondo crossed the finish about ten seconds ago, and B’s almost there now._ ”

“Woah, that was quick. Okay.”

“This challenge…wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be.

“Yeah. Other than Ibuki’s bike exploding, and Sammy blindsiding a literal mercenary, it’s been boring for us.”

“ _If it exploded, then how’s she still on the move?”_

Looking back at the site of the explosion, Ibuki and her bike were gone, just a pile of ash and smoke in its place, Spud and Rodney still getting back on their own bikes.

“Woah. I’ve gotta see this!”

_Round 10: Mondo (1 st), Mukuro (4th), N/A, Ibuki (8th), Jo (3rd), Sonia (7th), Rodney (11th), Sammy (5th), Spud (10th), Tammy (9th), B (2nd), Sadie (6th)_

…

“Alright! Can everyone hear me?”

Out on the lake, Hina stood atop a podium with a megaphone in one hand and a whistle in the other. Like the chosen players, she was in her swimsuit.

“In order to win, you need to be the first to cover the 200 metre distance out here! That’s all there is to it!” She lowered her megaphone, only to quickly raise it again. “Uh, Chris, you did make sure to keep the sharks at bay, right?”

“Of course!” Chris yelled back, nobody really sure as to whether he was being sarcastic.

Hina sighed to herself. “We’ll have to just roll with it, I guess.” Once again, she spoke into the megaphone. “On your marks…get set…go!” One toot of the whistle, and the eleven players took off.

Heather, Josee and Brody, following the theme of three certain players taking the lead, got far ahead of the others within seconds, Heather momentarily taking the lead, only for Brody to slide in front.

From the beach, with the Create Your Own Challenge challenge coming to an end soon, everyone had assembled to watch the final two rounds unfold and root for their players, as to snag the last few points they needed.

Geoff stood with a pair of binoculars. “Come on, bro! Do us proud!”

“How’s it going so far?” Leon, still a little muddy, asked.

“It’s close between us, the Girls, and MDS, but…yes! Brody’s taken it!”

“Right on!”

“Whoo! Keep our lead going!”

Jacques looked to Shinjiro. “How do you know we’re in the lead? Chris didn’t give away any of the results.”

“I’ve been keeping track myself – we have a victory, two second-place, three 4th places, and then what everyone else got.”

“So?”

“That’s 74 points. Add another victory on Brody’s part, and that’ll be 89!”

“But…what about everyone else?”

Shinjiro went quiet. “I don’t know about them. But hey, we finished in first place on day one!”

“Oh, dudes! This is it!” Geoff leaned forwards, binoculars still in hand. “Yes! We win!”

“How’s Josee doing?”

“I think she’s having a mild argument with Heather about that, but from my point of view, Josee was second.”

“Whew. I don’t think her team would’ve wanted to deal with her if she came third.”

“Let alone if Heather beat her.”

“Woah! Ezekiel and Dakota are fourth and fifth?! How’d that happen?”

While the commentary on the race continued from their teammates, Shinjiro slapped his partner on the shoulder. “Alright, Mr Silver Medal Athlete, don’t let us down now.”

_Round 11: Owen (9 th), N/A, Brody (1st), Josee (2nd), Fuyuhiko (7th), Dakota (5th), Topher (6th), Heather (3rd), Lorenzo (11th), Miles (10th), Ezekiel (4th), Tsumugi (8th)_

…

Once all the swimmers had finished and the platform had been moved off the lake, eleven tall pillars were put in its place, a tennis racket hanging from a peg just below the top of each one. The leftover players on each team were asked to change into their own swimsuits, before being moved onto the top of these pillars. They were arranged in a circle surrounding one other pillar, atop which sat the Tennis Menace from Dubai. Most likely, this was a challenge thought up by Ryoma.

“Okay,” the former tennis star also happened to be the one describing the challenge. “This thing in front of you is loaded with tennis balls. When the challenge starts, it’s going to spin around and shoot a ball at each of you. You just need to hit it in order to stay on. However, the rackets have been altered by Fujisaki, so we’ll be able to tell if you miss – if that happens, you’re out. If you want to, you can redirect your hits to knock other players off their pillars – if that happens, you’re out. So…yeah, just watch your backs.”

As the players shared looks of worry, down on the beach, Kaito raised a hand. “Okay, can I just say that’s the most we’ve ever heard him say at any one time?”

His comment garnered a laugh from the rest of the 79th Class, including Ryoma himself.

“Awesome Athletes, we’re starting with you guys, then working our way round clockwise.”

As soon as Ryoma finished his sentence, the machine booted up and fired a fast ball towards Eva, which she managed to send back towards it. With the ball cleared, the central platform started spinning to the next person, Jacques, who also managed to hit it. For two whole rounds, nobody missed the balls aimed at them. Which is when Ryoma looked to Chihiro.

“Fujisaki. I think it’s time we speed it up a little.”

Chihiro nodded and tapped something on her laptop, and the Tennis Menace stopped directly in front of Kirumi. Some moments passed with nothing happening, and looks of confusion being exchanged, until the machine booted itself up again. Another ball was launched at Kirumi, this one much faster than the previous ones, and spun round to shoot at the next person, just as quickly.

“Woah!” Harold narrowly avoided being knocked in the shoulder. “Gosh!”

“Kyaah!” Tenko also narrowly avoided being knocked off. “Hoshi-san! This is too much!”

Ellody was on the edge of trembling. “Is it getting faster?!”

On the ground below, Ryoma couldn’t help but chuckle and put another candy cigarette in his mouth as he watched everyone try to keep up. Chris took notice of this.

“I honestly didn’t see this kind of deviousness from you, Ryoma. Kinda reminds me of how I conduct the challenges on Total Drama.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Oh, finally! We have one!” Chris watched as Ellody fell screaming from her pillar, into the lake. About ten seconds later, Ennui took a ball to the stomach and joined her in the water, only without the screaming. The following turn took out Jen with a ball square to the face, and the next had both Leshawna and Kirumi miss their shots, albeit staying above the water.

It took another two turns until Devin was also eliminated (this time thanks to Eva redirecting one of her shots towards him), something which both Lightning and Jacques noticed.

“Ah, man! Why didn’t I try that?” As the Tennis Menace came back to him, Lightning hit the ball to a podium opposite him and into Harold’s face. That coupled with the fact that his ball came at him next was enough to send him falling. Another couple of turns passed until Tenko was bested.

“And the last three are all right next to each other. Guess there won’t be much more sabotage.”

“No worries,” Ryoma nudged Chihiro again. “We have something for that.”

The Tennis Menace started to slow its spinning down gradually, until it came to a stop in front of Eva. As before, nothing happened for a long time.

“Fujisaki, are there enough balls in there?”

“Uh, I think so?”

“Good. Activate it.”

One touch on the laptop, and two more shooters popped out of the robot, one aimed at Jacques and one aimed at Lightning. None of the three of them had the chance to react when tennis balls were launched at an even faster rate than before, at all three of them at once. For a long time, none of the three of them tried to sabotage each other, instead too focused on keeping themselves in the game. Something which didn’t work in Eva’s favour.

Ignoring the athlete’s angered yelling, both men continued to get rid of the balls that were still being fired at them.

“I’m done with this, man! Lightning came to win!” Finally, Lightning decided to try and get the better of Jacques, and aimed one of his shots in the ice dancer’s direction. Obviously, he didn’t account for his own athleticism, and had no idea he’d be able to repel them straight back in his direction.

“So did I.”

“Wha-- how can you keep this up?!”

Eventually, Lightning was unable to keep up with the increased number of balls, and ended up missing a good majority of them, the force knocking him too into the lake.

“And that’s it!” Chris yelled from the ground. “Huntsmen win the day…again…meaning they win the overall challenge!”

_Round 12: N/A, Eva (3 rd), Jacques (1st), Leshawna (8th), Lightning (2nd), Jen (9th), Devin (6th), Kirumi (7th), Harold (5th), Tenko (4th), Ennui (10th), Ellody (11th)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _FINAL RESULT_ **  
> ** Team Comet – 39 (5th) + 29 (8th) = **68 (5 th)**  
>  Awesome Athletes – 29 (8th) + 36 (4th) = **65 (7 th)**  
>  The Huntsmen – 46 (1st) + 58 (1st) = **104 (1 st)**  
>  Golden Girls – 44 (2nd) + 33 (6th) = **77 (2 nd)**  
>  Lightning Squad – 17 (11th) + 42 (2nd) = **59 (9 th)**  
>  Most Dangerous Sisters – 40 (3rd) + 16 (12th) = **56 (10 th)**  
>  Hammerheads – 36 (7th) + 26 (10th) = **62 (8 th)**  
>  Neo Amazons – 37 (6th) + 34 (5th) = **71 (4 th)**  
>  Team Victory 2.0 – 26 (9th) + 40 (3rd) = **66 (6 th)**  
>  Atua’s Followers – 40 (3rd) + 32 (7th) = **72 (3 rd)**  
>  The Immortals – 26 (9th) + 28 (9th) = **54 (11 th)**  
>  Victorious Secret – 15 (12th) + 22 (11th) = **37 (12** th)


	25. Seek and Ye Shall Vine...Nah, Not Really

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, I'm not putting you through that - that is what I had planned originally, but let's face it, it's just too cringe-worthy, to read and to write. I planned on making videos to go alongside it, but didn't have the time.  
> Instead, enjoy another fluffy weekend side event.

“Alright then, players.” Following the Huntsmen’s comeback, there hadn’t been any announcements for challenges further along, until today.

“It’s been a couple days without a challenge, so I thought I’d give you another long lasting one. Over the next two days, you guys will have to create a two minute long Vine compilation!”

The entire group started groaning in annoyance and yelling complaints.

“Seriously? That fad ended nearly two years ago!”

“Well, this new series isn’t going to age great.”

“Are you trying to make us regret signing up for this?”

“Give me a break! You try coming up with ten weeks’ worth of never-before-seen challenges!”

Among the back-and-forthing, Shinjiro just smirked at the rest of his teammates. “Told you so.”

“So _that’s_ what you guys were doing in the supermarket.”

The debating about the challenge continued, seemingly with no end.

“Well, we have two days, I want to start our team on a winning streak, and I don’t wanna deal with this dumpster fire any longer. Let’s get out of here.”

…

While Shinjiro wandered off filming extra clips for the challenge, those who weren’t as interested – namely Duncan, Kokichi and Tomoko – sat on the steps to their cabin with various drinks, a bag of the Jabberwock nuts Kokichi had stolen last week sitting between them. Unsurprisingly, Tomoko wasn’t touching them.

Duncan finished off a can of some kind of energy drink. “Man, I wish Chris would stop trying to connect with the younger generation and let us suffer like the old days.”

“Younger generation? Aren’t most of you like, I dunno, 24?”

“So?”

“ _So_ , you never once thought it weird you’re still in high school…how many years after you should have graduated? Fukuhara-chan, how many years?”

“Six,” Tomoko said, giving Kokichi a dark look of warning, the likes of which he completely ignored.

“Six years after you should have graduated.”

“Hey, I only agreed to come back because a) I was promised with an eventual possibility of a million dollars, and b) it got me out of jail.”

“Isn’t jail, like, your thing?”

“That was juvie. Believe me, you don’t wanna end up in jail.” Duncan tossed his can in the air, smirking at Kokichi. “Just letting you know now so you don’t end up the same when you’re a big boy.”

The supreme leader stuck his tongue out at Duncan.

“Wait,” Tomoko said, “you were promised an eventual million dollars? By Chris?”

“Yeah. He said if we cooperate with his reunion idea, we might be given a million to compensate. Although since this is Chris we’re talking about, he probably meant a million between everyone.”

Tomoko looked away and muttered to herself. “That’s one way, I guess.”

“Oh, you were here the whole time?”

Both boys and Tomoko’s attention was drawn away from one another when they heard another voice approaching their cabin, the source of which being Mahiru, camera in hand.

“What are you doing here?”

“Don’t you have a mildly debatable challenge to be getting on with?”

“Well, in case you couldn’t tell, not many people are all that enthusiastic about doing it. So, I thought I’d come up with something for everyone to pass the time with.”

“That being?”

“Team photos.” Mahiru turned her camera around to show the three of them a photo of Atua’s Followers. All of them faced the camera smiling and flashing peace signs. “It almost acts like a team building exercise in the meantime.” She flicked to the next one, which showed Mahiru’s own team looking at the camera, clearly without as much effort put into it.

“Actually, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Tomoko took the camera from Mahiru. “How many other teams are on board with this?”

“So far, everyone but you, the Golden Girls, and the Hammerheads. Mainly because I haven’t managed to find them yet. Although the ones I could find, they turned it into more of a contest.”

While Mahiru explained this, Tomoko skimmed through the other pictures: Victorious Secret took on a style similar to Atua’s Followers; Team Comet were on the beach, essentially re-enacting the first photo from season one; The Immortals appeared to have darker lighting, and the majority of the team were giving Ennui & Gundam scared looks; the Athletes were all lifting one another up over their heads; Team Victory 2.0 were referencing…something; and MDS’ photo was captured at the exact moment Toko was mid-sneeze.

“This doesn’t look much like a contest.”

“I never said between the teams.”

Tomoko flicked to the next one. Sure enough, the Lightning Squad was in the midst of a full-on brawl – Jo and Brick giving one another the evils, Lightning holding Tyler in a headlock, Ryan getting knocked out by one of them while trying to break them apart, Fuyuhiko looking about ready to snap, and odd-one-out Nekomaru stood at the back with a large grin on his face. Everyone else just looked like they wanted to be anywhere else.

“Oh…”

“So, are you guys up for it?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m for it. You guys?”

Duncan shrugged. “Sure. Beats a dead meme, I guess.”

“Great!” Mahiru took her camera back from Tomoko and put it back over her shoulder. “How about I meet you and the rest of your team in the clearing?”

…

As expected, it took a while for the now expanded group to find the rest of the team. For some inexplicable reason, most of the group were stood off to the side while Shinjiro walked their team’s video camera towards a crappily constructed headstone with the name Yungman scrawled onto it in black marker.

“Change of plans, guys,” Duncan got their attention. “Mahiru’s given us a less cringeworthy alternative.”

“Which is?”

“Team photos. Literally every other team’s done something for it.”

The rest of the team shared looks, before Leon kicked over the fake headstone. “We’re in. Anything beats this. What kind of team photos?”

“I don’t know,” Mahiru said. “Because it’s a team photo, it could have something to do with your team.”

“Oh! I’ve got it!” DJ got everyone’s attention. “Any of you guy’s seen one of those photos of people making a human tower, by sitting on top of each other?”

“A few times.”

“Why not do one of those?”

“Stacking eleven people on top of one another?! That could kill us!”

“Unless we have two stacks of five, then one person sat on top of both.”

“Great idea!”

The guys took some time to think about the best way to do it without causing everyone else serious injury, before getting started. DJ and Jacques sat on the bottom of the two pillars, back to back, with Geoff and Brody sat on the guys’ knees, using each other’s legs to support them. Above them, again, sat on their knees, were Kiibo and Leon; Tomoko and Duncan were above them; and then Ian & Shinjiro to finish it off.

As the ten of them ensured they were in position, Mahiru couldn’t help but gulp. Although they made it look easy enough to put it together, it was clear some of them were struggling with the weight.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this? It doesn’t look the most stable.”

“It’s fine!”

“Definitely? Because Kokichi still needs to get to the top, right?”

The other ten went quiet. “Oh, shoot. Forgot that part.”

Kokichi immediately took to using the rest of his team as a ladder, not really caring where his feet ended up, until he was balanced on Ian & Shinjiro’s legs.

Once he got his bearings, Kokichi sat himself on top, then crossed one leg over the other and glanced down at the rest of the team. “Everyone okay?”

“Like you care about our wellbeing.”

“Hmm…you’re right, I don’t.” In addition to the crossed legs, he put both hands behind his head in their usual position. “Alright, Koizumi-chan! Whenever you’re ready!”

While Mahiru, still concerned, prepped the shot, the two second-highest members of the team were in conversation.

“Hmm…”

“What’s up, Ian?”

“It’s just in the last challenge, Kaede said we’re in a superteam-like-alliance with the Golden Girls. Are we?”

“Outside of the fact we’re friends with most of the girls, not really.”

“I just thought that if we were, maybe we could also have a superteam photo?”

…

Oddly enough, most of his other teammates were on board with the idea. With help from Mahiru, they managed to find the Golden Girls (equally as bored with the original challenge) and tell them what they had planned. Once the majority of the girls also voiced their approval, the twenty-one semi-allied players found a large space on the beach - two minutes later, most of them found themselves in some position making up a human pyramid.

“Nngh…whose idea was it to put me on the bottom…?” Kiibo, sandwiched in the middle of the bottom row, alongside DJ, Geoff, Leshawna, Tomoko and Jacques, groaned. “You all know I’m not incredibly strong.”

“True, but you _are_ incredibly heavy. The whole thing’ll collapse if you’re any higher up.”

“Is it really too much of an effort for me to be just on the next level up?!”

Instead of him, the five next ones up were Ibuki, Kitty, Duncan, Brody and Sierra. Above them were Amy, Leon, Josee and Bridgette; then Sayaka, Shinjiro and Kaede; and Ian & Miku above them. All that was left, once again, was Kokichi, stood with Mahiru beside the human pyramid.

“Uhh…” the photographer, once again, looked more concerned with this new idea, “are you _absolutely_ sure about this? One of you could really get hurt this time.”

“Oh, calm down, Koizumi-chan! Do you know _anything_ about Total Drama? Things are going to get way worse than this! Now, excuse me…” Kokichi walked away from her and immediately started climbing Jacques’ side of the pyramid, putting the majority of his weight on his back and reaching up for Sierra’s. Kokichi noticed how the ice dancer reacted to this sudden movement, and was quick to pick on it.

“Oh, _come on_ …I’m not even that heavy. Suck it up! You’re supposed to be a gold medal Olympian, right? _Oh, wait…_ ”

As Kokichi actually started climbing, Jacques intentionally avoided the supreme leader’s shit-eating grin. _“Aga_ _ç_ _ant despote.”_

Kokichi’s size and weight meant it was, again, easy enough for him to eventually reach his spot on the top of the human pyramid, ignoring the grunts of his teammates and the wobbling of their delicate structure.

“Excuse me, Miku-chan, Ian-chan.” Upon reaching the top, Kokichi settled himself with a knee on each of their backs, bracing himself with a hand on each of their heads.

“Why’d it have to be us two on the top?”

“I don’t know. Next to Ouma-kun, we _are_ the lightest, I guess.”

“Whatever the reason, I hope we’re not up here for too long. I’m not liking how high up we--” Ian was cut off when Kokichi’s hand pushed his head into Miku’s. “Ow! Kokichi, I know it must be hard to balance up there, but can you find another way to deal with it, instead of accidentally giving the two of us headaches?”

“Sure…accidentally…” remembering his team’s discovery from the weekend, Kokichi noticed the gradual reddening of Miku’s cheeks as a result of their ‘accident’. _Anything to find a way to create actual_ drama, being his motivation for finding out this fact. “Okay, Koizumi-chan! You know the drill!”

“Sure, sure…” Mahiru stepped back a little to ensure she could get everyone in the shot. “And…” *flash* “we’re done here!”

“Great! Catch me, Fukuhara-chan!”

“What?” Tomoko had little time to react as she looked up and saw Kokichi falling towards her. Channelling whatever rapid instincts had come over her during the first-year telethon, she stuck her arms out slightly above her head, Kokichi thankfully landing in them.

“Ouma-kun! Please, don’t do that again!”

“Why not? You caught me, right?”

“Maybe, but what if I didn’t? Someone could have gotten hurt!”

“What, like Ian-chan and Miku-chan?” Kokichi pointed a thumb behind him, where Ian and Miku had fallen off the human pyramid too, and were now piled on top of one another.

“Uh, oops…”

“Woah, you really need to keep a closer eye on your friends…”

Still stuck on the bottom row, Tomoko couldn’t exactly run over and check on them, or else more people would go falling. Instead, Kaede jumped down to do so.

“Are you two okay? You’re not hurt?”

Neither of them paid Kaede any attention, or made any move to get up. On a closer look, there was another harsh red forming on Miku’s face, darker than before. And though most of his own face was obstructed from view, there was a light dusting of red there, too.

“That’s…interesting.”

Tomoko, still holding Kokichi and partially balancing the remaining players on her back, looked at her partner. “You did that on purpose, I’m guessing?”

“It’s like you don’t even know me.”

“No, it’s just I didn’t think you’d want to concern yourself with someone’s dumb crush.”

“Hey, anything to spice things up around here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And next time, Kokichi will have that chance to spice things up.
> 
>  _Agacant despote_ = annoying dictator


	26. The King's Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris' twist on a common Japanese game leads to the extreme challenges he's been waiting for.

“Rise and shine, Fukuhara-chan!”

As per the norm, Tomoko had been the last to get up that morning. And also as per the norm, when there was a big challenge announcement, it was Kokichi who was waking her up – this time fully dressed and leaning over his own bunk, rather than kneeling at the end of Tomoko’s.

“Wow, your lie-ins are getting longer and longer. Is posing for photos really that taxing of a daily activity for you?”

“Nnh…obviously that’s not it. That was five days ago.”

“Monday’s cliff dive was something. Maybe that was it,” Kiibo offered.

“Easy for you to say,” Duncan chimed in. “You didn’t even take part.”

“Well _you_ weren’t the one being chased around the lake by sharks!”

“Blame the Lightning Squad. They had to collect a bunch of shark teeth to win the challenge.”

“Which they didn’t.”

“Either way, can’t be helped if Fang got mad.”

“Well with any luck,” Duncan jumped from his bed, ”Scott will be so traumatised from it that we have a leg up this time.”

* * *

Just after lunch was when Chris decided to have the next challenge.

“Listen up, kids! I know how much you hated the challenge last weekend, but trust me when I say, this challenge is the big one. The one to create anger…embarrassment… **drama**!”

Kokichi rubbed his hands together, his habitual shit-eating grin on his face. “My kind of challenge…”

“It’s a game which I like to call…The King’s Game! And before anyone says a thing, yes, I am aware it’s a game that already exists in Japan so _put your hand down, Harold_!”

The nerd did so, frowning.

“For those of you who are confused, anyone care to explain?”

Ibuki was eager to do so. “Leave it to Ibuki! Say there are six people playing the King’s Game. On six slips of paper, sticks etc., players write the number 1-5, as well as some kind of symbol indicating the King. Every round, the players draw one of the numbers each, and whoever gets the symbol is the King for the round. The King’s role is to give an order to one of the other players, like this: number 1 has to strip naked. And if you’re given an order, you have to see it through, no questions!”

“Exactly! But, since that format wouldn’t result in anyone getting any points, we’re gonna change it up just a little. In this version, if you get given a order, there are three options – one, you complete your order and stay onto the next round; two, you try and complete it and fail; or three, you chicken out of the order altogether. Failing to complete an order would only result in being eliminated from the game, but choose to chicken out, and you’ll be faced with a penalty at the end.

“Furthermore, because of how many people we have here, the numbers will be split onto paper in different team colours, with however many people there are on each team. So, for example, eleven purple, ten grey, eleven black and so on. And to make room for the King’s paper, we’ll be swapping out one of the green papers for it.”

There were that many papers for everyone that they all needed to be put into a large fish tank which Chef was wheeling over. “Now let’s get this game started as soon as possible! Everyone come up and get a slip of paper!”

It took some time, but eventually everyone returned to their team groups with papers in hand. While most people were opening theirs, Kaede raised a hand.

“It says I’m the King for the round!”

“Alright! Kaede, you know the drill.”

“Then…hmm…I don’t really want anyone to do anything too extreme, so…” she paused for a moment to think of which colours/numbers to call out. “Gold #10 and indigo #5 have to hug each other for twenty seconds.”

Both Ella and Tenko waved their own papers in the air and made their way to one another.

“At least it isn’t a degenerate.”

While they hugged, everyone returned their papers and drew out a new one, Ryota becoming the new king.

“Um, pink #3 has to hang upside down from a tree for the next three turns.”

Scott dropped his piece of paper into the box and walked over to the nearest tree (which had conveniently just popped out of the ground) and started climbing it. After settling in, the whole process repeated itself, MacArthur emerging as the one in charge this time.

“I’m already done with the tame route. Black #11 has to go lick the floor of the communal washroom!”

There was a moment of silence as the last few people checked their slips of paper, when a shrill scream cut out from the Most Dangerous Sisters.

“No. No, no, no, I’m not doing that!”

“Come on, Dakota! I’m sure it was cleaned…yesterday?”

“It doesn’t matter when it was ‘cleaned’, I’m still not doing it!”

Chris chimed in. “Too bad for you! Dakota, hit the chicken bench – and don’t forget your hat.” The host pointed to a bench behind him, with a large crate of chicken hats next to it. “Also, because we need a system to get rid of the surplus numbers…Taka!”

Kiyotaka came over to the play area carrying a small black box. “Since the first person to be eliminated had a black paper, we’ll lose those ones first. Number eleven’s gone, and next time someone goes out, we’ll get rid of #10, then #9, until we get to the next colour.”

As Dakota dropped her paper into the smaller box and begrudgingly put one of the hats on, the next King was quickly revealed – Cody.

“I’ve got an interesting one – red #1 through #10, you guys are going to have a dance battle, and I’ll pick the winners.”

As the ten selected players – Rock, Sadie, Duncan, Kazuichi, MacArthur, Akane, Harold, Hiyoko, Carrie and Tyler – made their way to the middle of the group, Tomoko broke from her own team and approached Kiyotaka.

“So, you’re Chris’ new intern?”

“Apparently so. Since I have nothing else to do in the meantime.”

“I don’t know whether to be happy for you taking part in the game, or insulted for someone else taking my job.”

Both of them shared a quick laugh together, returning to the ongoing dancing.

“No, no, no! MacArthur, what the heck are you doing?!”

Beside MacArthur’s trainwreck of a routine, Sadie and Tyler had tripped over one another.

“This is going about as well as I expected,” Tomoko said.

“And something tells me it is going to get worse over time.”

“Sadie, MacArthur, Tyler, Kazuichi, Cameron – you five are out. Loser bench!”

…

The next few rounds had similar difficulty levels to the previous ones:

Kaito ordered Topher to remove the socks of his partner (being Rodney) with only his teeth. Izzy tried to make Scott go and punch Fang in the nose – obviously, he refused. Topher made Zoey put a swear word in every sentence for the remainder of the game. Tsumugi, unintentionally, ended up an enemy of Heather’s when she challenged her to get her head shaved – again, she naturally chose to chicken out.

Entering the new round, Amy waved her small paper high in the air. “My turn! Hmm…grey #3 and blue #9 have to…swap clothes for the rest of the game. And if you’re the same gender, hell, why not throw the underwear in there too?”

A sigh came from Victorious Secret. “Okay, whose gross panties am I gonna have to fuckin’ trade with?”

Beside Amy, one of her own players held their number, sweating and trembling.

“Heh, sorry Miku.”

As the two girls went to the bathrooms to change clothes, the rounds continued: Hagakure’s ordered foot massage failed to impress Celeste enough to grant him access to the next round; Teruteru passed out moments after Alejandro made him lick Owen’s armpit; and Leon’s poorly thought out attempt to eliminate the Hammerheads from the game got himself eliminated instead.

Then Trent and Lightning had gotten the boot (literally) following a failed attempt at getting away with stealing food from Chef’s kitchen.

“Well, damn. That didn’t work.”

“No…” the King for that round, Kokichi, collected the random food items they’d managed to find – a bag of crisps, soda, peanut butter, and meat leftover from lunch. “I’d say you did exactly what I was after.”

“So we’re still in the game?”

“Nope. You still got caught.”

When Junko’s turn came along, Miku and Miu had only just returned from changing their clothes. Miu was comfortable enough in her new outfit, same the top buttons which she’d undone, but Miku was very much the opposite.

“Hey, uh,” Amy nudged her, “sorry again, Miku.”

“It’s…fine…it’s not as uncomfortable as it looks…” she looked away, red with embarrassment. “At least she doesn’t wear a thong.”

“Got it!” Everyone’s attention was drawn to Junko. “White #1 to #5 has to kiss someone of the King’s choosing.”

“Oh, come on!” Miku couldn’t help but yell, throwing her paper. “I’ve only just done another humiliating one!”

She and the other four – Anne Maria, Kaito, Jacques and Hina – got into the middle of the group.

“Let’s see…Kaito and Maki, Hina and Sakura, Jacques and Josee, Anne Maria and Zeke, Miku…”

She was cut off by a tap on the shoulder from Leon, having left the loser bench, and a quick prompt whispered in her ear. “Interesting…okay! Miku, you have to kiss Ian!”

Kazuichi nudged Leon as he sat down again. “What was that about?”

“Just paying Ian back for last year.”

In the meantime, Hina had already passed with a kiss to her best friend’s cheek, while Anne Maria fled from Ezekiel in a heartbeat, and following encouragement from their teammates, the Ice Dancers followed through on the order too (“for six seconds, may I point out”). On the other hand, while Kaito was eager to kiss Maki, the assassin wasn’t as enthusiastic, pushing Kaito away the moment he got too close.

“Sorry, Momota,” Maki said, turning away and quickly returning to her team. In the background, Kaede rolled her eyes and Tsumugi shook her head.

While this had gone on, both Miku and Ian had been too embarrassed to make the first move.

“Come on, Ian!” Leon yelled from the loser bench. “Just go for it!”

In the meantime, from the Golden Girls: “Kiss him, Miku-chan! You know you want to!”

Both players flushed red, they went in for a quick one on the lips, immediately moving away from one another and ignoring the looks of their teammates.

“That’s one barrier crossed,” Leon murmured. “Now if only they won’t both so awkward.”

…

Jump forward once more, and the following results had come about:

Ibuki: “Brown #8 has to shower for two minutes with the person of the opposite sex they’re most familiar with!” Fuyuhiko (and Peko) passed.

Sanders: “Um, gold #7-#11 have to keep ice down their underwear for two turns.” Shuichi, Justin and Sammy failed, Geoff and Mikan passed.

Harold: “Orange #2…oh, Hiyoko. Come here.” When the traditional dancer reached him, he whispered the order in her ear, prompting a grin from her. Soon after, she’d walked behind Duncan and pantsed him. Harold ran for the hills as Duncan charged after him.

“Duncan, wait! Calm down!”

“Zoey, you’re out! Loser bench!”

Leshawna: “Pink #10, brush your teeth and chase it with orange juice.” Shinjiro passed.

Devin: “Grey #1, stick your arm into the communal toilet, past the elbow.” Tomoko passed, barely resisting the urge to wash it all off instantly.

And now it was Kitty’s turn to challenge yellow #8 (Duncan). “Lick another player’s armpit!”

While Duncan looked around for the cleanest option, Stephanie had spotted something else. “Hang on! This is like the 20th round now, and the Golden Girls haven’t lost a single player!”

Josee looked to Stephanie, annoyed. “That’s no fault of ours. Don’t go blaming us for everyone else’s terrible decision making.”

“Or the fact that the only one of us you _have_ picked, rocks at this kind of thing!” Amy sided with her partner, for probably the first time this whole competition.

“Really it’s just for the team…I actually hate all this…” She pulled at Miu’s top.

“Alright, no.” Duncan walked away from the remaining players, dropping his paper back into the tank. “I don’t trust anyone’s pits, especially around here. I’m out.” He dropped himself onto the chicken bench, not bothering to pick up one of the hats.

As the next round started, Stephanie walked to a spot behind the Golden Girls, trying to sneaking a look at some of their slips of paper, before opening her own sheet of paper.

“Yes! Finally!” All the girls span to face her as she punched the air. “Time to close the gap! Brown #8,” Leshawna looked over at her, “has to choose three players from her team to eliminate!”

“Come on!” Kitty looked to Chris. “She looked at our papers! That has to be against the rules!”

Ibuki put a quick end to her concerns. “It isn’t really. All you need to do is give the order _using_ the number – knowing someone else’s doesn’t matter.”

“Exactly! So get to it, Leshawna.”

Ignoring the grin on Stephanie’s face, she tried to gauge the reactions of her teammates. “Fine. Kaede, Bridgette and I, we’re out.”

“How does that work then? Where do we go?”

“Bridgette and Kaede, hit the loser bench. Leshawna, chicken bench.”

And it look like things were going to remain drama-driven. After Leonard tripped over his own robes during a moonwalking order, Jen made four others stay in their underwear for the rest of the game (Carrie and Korekiyo abstained, while Miu and Angie stayed on, mainly because Angie only really wore underwear anyway).

And then came the surprise King:

“Gonta…doesn’t really know what to do now.”

“It’s simple, man!” Cody reached up to clap his shoulder. “Just say a colour and a number, then tell that person to do whatever you want!”

“Gonta understands, but doesn’t want to be mean to anyone.” He thought for a moment, before coming up with a way around it. “Grey number…seven, give two orders to any player you want to.”

Excited murmurs went around the group as they unfolded their slips of paper once more, but they gradually died as seconds went by, with nobody claiming the position of King.

“Huh. Maybe that one blew off somewhere. Taka, grab a flashlight and skim the area, would you?”

Kiyotaka moved to return to the spa hotel to pick one up, when a familiar laughter stopped him.

“ _Nishishi…_ no need for that, Ishimaru-chan.”

All eyes went to Kokichi, sat atop Tomoko’s shoulders, waving a grey slip of paper, the number 7 printed on it in light blue.

“Hey, Gonta-kun,” Rantaro whispered to his partner. “No offence, but I think you made a huge mistake.”

“Let me see…” Kokichi looked over the remaining players. “It wasn’t just the Golden Girls with a lead over the others. I think it’s time the Hammerheads lost a few players. Alejandro, what do you say to an all or nothing challenge?”

He approached Kokichi, still sat atop his partner. “Interesting. What did you have in mind?”

“Ah, ah, ah. No details until you’ve decided. Win, and you move onto the next round. Lose or chicken out, and you have to choose four of your remaining teammates to get rid of, along with you.”

“Hey, Kokichi.” Geoff got his attention. “I wanna get rid of Al’s team as much as you do, but this guy can do literally everything!”

“ _Almost_ everything. Believe me, everyone has a weakness.” His attention turned back to Alejandro. “Thoughts?”

“I accept this challenge.”

“Great! Fukuhara-chan, if you would do the honours…”

Tomoko was confused for a moment, until Kokichi pointed next to her feet, where there was a small lump covered with a sheet. She kicked it off, revealing a blender filled with…something. Something brown, thick and putrid.

“All you need to do to win is drink this whole thing without throwing up!”

Contained within the blender was a blended puree of crisps, soda, peanut butter, and the leftover meat from lunch.

“Wow. Kokichi. Devious, man!” Geoff high-fived him.

All the remaining Huntsmen revelled in the look of disgust and fear on Alejandro’s face. Despite his hatred for these types of challenges, he still tried to drink it, only to stop only one sip into it and vomit it all onto the grass.

“And Al’s out of the running. Get choosing, buddy.”

Topher, Gonta, Devin and Rodney headed for the loser bench, the still vomiting Alejandro in tow, while Kokichi tried to figure out his next target.

“As for my second order…Harukawa-chan~”

Maki glared in his direction.

“You have to fight two of your teammates. The losers are out, and the winner becomes the new king.”

“You’ve given your orders now, so can you get off me?” Tomoko looked up at Kokichi, fixated on Maki and her two chosen teammates (Eva and Mukuro) being herded into the middle.

“Nah. Better wait until the match is over. I don’t fancy dying a second time thanks to Harukawa-chan.”

…

With Mukuro emerging as the victor, she in turn had ordered Spud to lick the wall of the wizard’s tower; Ryoma had Ryan pick 20 blades of grass with only his teeth; and Nagito made Celeste kiss a dead fish. Only one of the three chickened out, and it should be obvious who. Regardless, the majority of the players were still in the game, it was now early evening, and Chris was getting frustrated.

“Man, this game’s taking forever! Can the next person find a way to speed things up a little?”

Owen laughed, holding the King paper in the air. “No problem, Chris! This next order’s for everybody, even me! And it’s a good one! Everyone has to jump off the cliff!”

“Well, that doesn’t sound _too_ bad…”

“Naked.”

“Yes!” Chris punched the air. “Owen, my man! Never letting me down!”

…

Fast forward to a few minutes later, with all the remaining players gathered at the top of the cliff.

Some of the players were already down to their underwear, but the less willing players huddled towards the back.

“Naked jump, and you’re still in the game; jump off clothed, and that only counts as a fail; refuse to jump at all, and you’re a chicken.”

Everyone still hesitated for a moment, until the King attempted to lift the players’ spirits.

“Come on, guys! Don’t think of it as an order, think of it as having fun!” Owen instantly proceeded to rip off his shirt, shorts and underwear, to the disgust of most of the others, and jumped straight off the edge.

The equally as lively players quickly followed suit, while the more anxious and sensible ones went straight back to the clearing. Within the Huntsmen, there was a mixed bag.

“Okay, I’m out. That’s a 1000ft drop, right?” Kokichi asked, mainly towards Tomoko.

“Ish.”

“Then no. You understand, right?”

“I understand you’re being a wimp,” Leon dropped his jeans. “Geoff, Brody, cannonball?”

The three lost their boxers and bombed off the edge of the cliff.

“Very well. DJ, Ian, Kii-boy, let’s go.”

As the four of them left, only Tomoko, Shinjiro and Jacques were still atop the cliff.

“Looks like neither of you are risky enough to do this. Suit yourself.”

“Jacques, you’re not doing it?”

“As much as I want to win this challenge, it’s something I would rather do with my dignity intact.”

“He says after he cheated his way to the Ridonculous Race finale.” Shinjiro pulled his boxers off and tossed them towards his partner. “See you on the ground.”

“Screw it. We need another win.” Tomoko pulled her bralette off, and was about to do the same with her pants, when she noticed her remaining teammate looking weirdly at her back. “What?”

“You’ve got a large bit of dead skin,” Jacques pointed to the lower part of her back, “right there.”

Tomoko felt around for it and attempted to pull it off, not feeling anything happening. “You sure?” She gave it another pull, appearing to only make it worse. “I’ll just give it a look when we’re done here. Thanks anyway.”

Ignoring whatever it was, Tomoko ran and leapt off the cliff after the rest of her team.

_PASS – next round: Owen, Noah, Mondo, Shawn (4); Sanders, Izzy (2); Geoff, Brody, Tomoko, Shinjiro (4); Miku, Amy, Josee, Ibuki, Sierra (5); Brick, Jo, Nekomaru, Hajime (4); Mikan, Chiaki (2); Cody, Mike, Junior (3); Jasmine, Stephanie (2); Lorenzo, Chet, Harold, Rock, Sam (5); Angie, Akane (2); Ezekiel, Beardo (2); Miu, Sugar (2)  
FAIL: Makoto, Chihiro; Sky, Peko, Mukuro; Jacques; Kitty; Ryan, Fuyuhiko; Komaru, Toko, Scarlett; Rantaro; Crimson; Spud; Tenko; Max, Ennui, B, Hifumi; Beth, Lindsay, Tsumugi, Katie  
CHICKEN: Mickey, Jay, Ryoma; Sakura, Hina; DJ, Ian, Kiibo, Kokichi; Sayaka; Nagito; Jen, Junko, Sonia; Tom; Kirumi, Mahiru, Hiyoko, Ella; Imposter, Ryota, Dave; Himiko, Dawn, Laurie, Miles, Staci, Tammy; Gundam; Ellody, Mary_

* * *

With the game finally down to the last 37 players, Chris called for a slight change in gameplay.

“Right. First off, since most of the teams are on even ground now, we’ll change how we draw the numbers. This time, you only stick to the numbers in your team colours, and change them up every round. As for the King, we’ll decide that using this.” On Chris’ cue, Chef and Kiyotaka pushed a TV screen behind the host, with the 37 remaining players’ faces flashing on it. “Oh, and Dwayne might just kill me for making this suggestion – since his 16-year-old son is still competing – but let’s up the ante with some of your orders! Go truth or dare style!”

Chris’ request seemed to perked up many of those left over.

“Golden Girls and Team Victory 2.0 are currently tied for first, with five players each. So, you know, bear that in mind when creating your orders.” Chris hit the button in his hand, the image on the screen stopping on Noah’s face.

“Up the ante? In that case, pink #1 has to down an entire bottle of Mr. Kizakura’s whiskey.”

“No fuckin’ problem! Bring me the booze!”

“This can only go so well…”

Within seconds of getting it, Miu had started downing it, apparently not feeling any kind of effects from it.

“Akane! Give it to me!”

“Gold #1 to #5, all of you have to sit in a trashcan for 30 seconds. Everyone else can do whatever the hell they want with them in that time.”

As the five empty bins were brought out, Amy glanced into one of them. “These are clean, right?”

“Only one of them isn’t, I think. We were a little short.”

Four of the remaining players climbed into the bins, Amy ending up in the dirty one, but Josee stood off to the side, trembling.

“Hellooo? Earth to cheating ice dancer?”

“Don’t worry about it!” Amy poked her head out. “At least you don’t have the gross one! And it’s only 30 seconds!”

Josee knew it was only 30 seconds, and that it was necessary for winning the challenge, but she also knew on this island, she was public enemy number…well, at least five. And the other players could do whatever they wanted for those 30 seconds. Whatever they did would no doubt make her existing claustrophobia worse.

Her eyes darted all over the place. Amy and Ibuki gave her a thumbs-up as encouragement; Chris made a gesture as though checking his watch; the remaining players were itching to get started; from the loser bench, Jacques looked ready to run over to act as support.

Eventually, she swallowed hard and climbed into the remaining bin, still breathing heavily and rapidly.

“Good on you, Josee!”

“You got this!”

The support towards probably their most hated teammate was surprising, but a welcome change.

“Three…two…one…go!”

The remaining players went wild. Ibuki and Sierra were both laughing, Amy sounded on the verge of vomiting, and Miku yelped on occasion. But obviously, Josee wasn’t enjoying a second of it. Before long, it wasn’t just the inside of the metal can getting kicked around.

“ _Get me out of here! I can’t breathe!”_

Not hearing her protests, the others kept on messing with Josee’s bin until it eventually fell over, the lid falling off. The ice dancer took advantage of the opening and crawled out of the bin, running straight for the chicken bench and continuing to hyperventilate.

“Josee is out, with fifteen seconds to go!”

While three of the others were coping alright, the grossness was starting to become a little too much for Amy. And it was only going to exacerbate.

“Urrgh…I can’t keep this shit up any more…” Miu let go of Amy’s bin and held a hand to her head. “Looks like it’s kicking in…HRRGH! Oh, fuck!”

As the others continued, Amy’s bin lid fell off too, the cheerleader enjoying the sudden surge of fresh air. Which was ruined when her view was obstructed by Miu’s face.

Whatever happened next was obvious to anyone, as every other spectating player flinched away from the action. It was confirmed soon after, when Amy practically leapt out of the bin with a banshee scream and hustled to the bathrooms.

“Yikes…and that’s time! Miu, because you threw up, you’re gonzo!”

With Amy still in the bathrooms, Chris started up the on-screen roulette.

“Ibuki again!”

“Hmm…” Ibuki glanced at the paper in one of her teammate’s hands. “Nagito-chan, don’t fail Ibuki now! Gold #3 and green #1 have to make out for a minute!”

From the Hammerheads’ trio, the Girls heard Cody audibly groan, and it only got louder when Sierra squealed.

“Thank you, Ibuki!”

“Uh, sorry, guys,” Cody looked to Mike and Junior, “but I can’t do this.”

“Really? I thought you two were okay.”

“We are! I just don’t know about a romantic relationship with her yet.” He leaned in closer. “Not to mention when she acts like that, it’s too much like World Tour.”

“Okay then. Sierra, loser bench. Cody, chicken bench.”

And the four following challenges also ended with somebody being eliminated.

Jasmine made every player face Shawn’s snot rocket and go a minute without washing it off – Noah bowed out instantly; Beardo, Stephanie and Shinjiro couldn’t last the full minute.

Izzy made every black, yellow and gold player toss their underwear off the roof of one of the cabins. Only Angie didn’t do it since, again, she really only wore underwear in the first place.

Brody made all the red and blue players pick the nose of their partner. Brick and Rock chickened out; Harold, Sam and Nekomaru failed, as their partners refused to comply.

Then the fourth one came around.

“Oh. Zeke. You’re the King this time.”

Lorenzo raised a hand. “Uh, why’s Chef putting a ladder between two of the cabins?”

“Because of my order. All the purple, black and white numbers have to take five shots, then walk across the ladder.”

“We’re in full-blown truth-or-dare territory right now, aren’t we?”

“Um, I don’t think I’ll do this one, i-in case someone gets hurt.”

“Well then, looks like Chiaki’s the only hope for MDS! Taka, if you would.”

Kiyotaka pushed out a table loaded with alcoholic drinks and glasses of varying sizes. “I still don’t agree with any of this!”

“Well, that’s what you agreed to do.”

“Ishimaru-kun,” Tomoko nudged him, “just count yourself lucky you aren’t doing the challenges.”

After each player downed their five shots, they ran to the side of the Golden Girls’ cabin and started climbing, Mikan and Kiyotaka watching from below. Shawn, Geoff and Brody managed the walk easily enough, capping it off by jumping from the roof. Mondo was a bit more wobbly but succeeded, and Owen couldn’t even get to the ladder in the first place, Chris suggesting he throw the towel in after ten tries.

Chiaki and Tomoko both made it to the roof, looking warily below them. Tomoko decided to go first, looking awfully wobbly thanks to the shots, but managing to keep it together. Chiaki wasn’t able to find it as easy - coupled with her existing drowsiness, she didn’t take too well to whatever alcohol they’d all been given.

Then her foot slipped through one of the gaps. Only briefly, she managed to salvage her footing. But still, for some reason, she let out a scream and stumbled forward, taking both herself and Tomoko off the ladder, the pair landing roughly on the grass. Mikan and Kiyotaka were with them in an instant.

“Are you both alright?!”

“Yeah, I’m good.” Tomoko pushed herself into a sitting position. “Nanami-san?”

“I’m not sure. I think there might have been a sharp bit of metal on one of the rungs.”

“Let me see.” Mikan moved round to check her foot.

“My foot slipped through one of the holes, but I managed to stay on top of the ladder. Then my foot started hurting. Like a bit of metal pierced it.”

“Your foot’s perfectly fine, Nanami-san,” Mikan confirmed. “There’s nothing there.”

Unseen to all three of the others, Tomoko swallowed nervously, glancing between Chiaki and Kiyotaka.

“And with that, Most Dangerous Sisters are out of the game! Tough blow, ladies.”

_FINAL 18: Mondo/Shawn, Sanders/Izzy, Geoff/Brody, Miku/Ibuki, Jo/Hajime, Mike/Junior, Jasmine, Lorenzo/Chet, Akane, Ezekiel, Sugar [Most Dangerous Sisters 12 th place]_

…

“This is it! We’re nearing the end, people! And Mike, you’re up next!”

Mike’s order also followed the truth-or-dare route. Everyone was given a chilli pepper, with six extremely hot ones among them. Whoever couldn’t take the heat was gone, regardless of what pepper it was. Five of the six eaters of the hottest peppers – Shawn, Jo, Sanders, Lorenzo and Sugar – didn’t last more than five seconds, but Akane was demanding seconds. Regardless, Victorious Secret were out.

Chet made Ibuki and Junior chug a large bottle of soda, then go ten seconds without burping. Neither managed.

Mondo ordered Brody to fight Fang and return with one of his teeth. He nailed the ‘fight Fang’ part, but not the ‘bring back a tooth’ part.

Hajime made Geoff and Chet strip off and yell the name of the person they loved. Chet, having no one, failed, but Geoff passed, putting Team Victory 2.0 in tenth.

And on a more disgusting level, Izzy tried to get Mondo and Ezekiel to lick Miu’s vomit off the floor. Naturally, both refused, putting the Immortals in ninth, and Team Comet in eighth.

Akane came up with one that she could fly through if she put herself into it – Izzy, Geoff, Mike and Jasmine had to take more shots, then climb to the top of the spa hotel. Geoff was the first of the other three to end up falling (thankfully caught by Chef), then Mike (who managed to land safely enough), and finally Jasmine (only because of the shots), putting all three of their teams out of the game.

“And we have our final four! Izzy of the Awesome Athletes; Miku of the Golden Girls; Hajime of the Lightning Squad; and Akane of Atua’s Followers! All four of you, into the middle!”

All that was left on the table now, were several bottles of booze, and some vase sized glasses. Hell, maybe they were vases.

“This last game is up to me to decide, and it’s simple. Down a glass of a drink without throwing up!”

“That’s it?” Akane wasn’t too happy. “Where’s the thrill? I wanna keep doin’ the extreme stuff!”

“You shouldn’t be complaining. Won’t that make it easier for your team to win?”

“Sure, maybe, but where’s the fun in that?”

Chris got her attention. “What are you saying?”

“I’m sayin’ I ain’t doing any more drinking!”

“So…you quit? Okay…Atua’s Followers, fourth place.” She walked to the loser bench, ignoring the looks from the rest of her team. “Hajime, Izzy, Miku…ready, set…”

They each picked up one of the vases.

“Go!”

It seemed Izzy too was starting to feel the effects of the previous shots, as she was taking it much slower than the other two. After a few sips, she too couldn’t help but vomit.

“Athletes, third place. This is it! Next one for the win!”

Both Miku and Hajime kept on drinking, taking the occasional break in their drinking to catch some air. With only an eighth of both glasses left, Miku’s drinking was also starting to slow down. It wasn’t much longer until she couldn’t take any more, and she dropped the vase and passed out.

“Golden Girls are out! Hajime wins it for the Lightning Squad!”

The guys sprung from their benches and cheered, clapping Hajime on the back.

“Now, chickens, I said at the beginning that you’d have a penalty. You guys are going to be split into three groups: one group is in charge of helping Chef with meals tomorrow, one is in charge of cleaning the communal washrooms, and the other is in charge of prep for the next challenge. All of that won’t be until the morning, since it’s getting pretty late.

“Clearly, you’re all exhausted from this challenge, so take the rest of the night off, including the chickens, and we’ll bring food over to your cabins.”

The Lightning Squad still celebrating, everyone dispersed and made their way back to their living quarters, Victorious Secret waiting behind to help Miu, who was still sick from the alcohol. Miku also started coming to, only one thing on her mind.

“Uh, Iruma-san, can I get my clothes back?”

Miku got no answer from Miu or any of her teammates as they went back to their mini campsite.

“Hey! Iruma-san!”

“That was a close one, huh?”

Miku turned away from her yelling at Victorious Secret, to see Ian stood behind her.

“Yeah. I guess I was just unlucky with that last challenge. I don’t drink.”

“Can you even drink yet?”

“Not in Japan. Hence.” Miku laughed a little at her statement. “What are you still doing out here?”

“Oh. I just, uh, well…” he reached into his jeans pocket, looking away and going beet red. “Here. Picked these up for you. Well, technically, they’re Miu’s, but it’s better than nothing. I hope.”

Hanging from Ian’s hand was Miu’s brown-ish panties. The one’s Miku had previously had to toss off the roof. Miku looked at them for a moment, unsure how to respond.

“Can you please take them? It’s awkward enough as it is.”

“Right. Sorry.” Miku snatched them away and turned around to put them back on, Ian continuing to avert eye contact. “I’m done.”

She turned back around, Ian eying Miku up and down. “Honestly, I think Miu’s uniform kind of suits you.”

“What?! H-how? I feel humiliated in this!”

“No, I just meant the uniform itself. Lose all the straps, especially those ones on the legs, and it really isn’t too bad.”

After a moment of cooling off, Miku decided to try this. It was a little fiddly, but by the time they all came off, all that was left were the boots, socks, and pink sailor fuku. She looked down at herself again, a little more pleased with how she looked.

“You’re right. It is nicer. But I’m still getting into my pyjamas when I get back to the cabin.”

“Yeah. I recommend you get into something warmer.”

“Also, I think Amy and Josee need a little support after that one challenge.”

“Maybe not. Amy’s still showering, and I saw Jacques head out for a walk with Josee. They should be fine.”

Miku took in a breath. “On second thought, after the drinking, I might go for a walk too. Maybe a little fresh air would do some good.”

“Whatever helps you. Well, goodnight.” Ian made a move back to his team, when he heard Miku stop him.

“Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me.”

He turned back around, seeing Miku’s face for the third time that day tinged red.

“I mean, if you want.”

Ian smiled. “Sure. I think that sounds great. Although…” He looked down at Miku’s current outfit again. “If you still want to get into your pyjamas, go for it. I’d honestly prefer it.”

“As long as I leave those…things here, I think I’ll actually stick with this. Like you said, it isn’t that bad anymore.”

“Okay then.”

They started walking towards the beach, only for Miku to stumble and latch onto his shoulder.

“Still drunk.”

“No problem.” Ian lightly shook off Miku’s arm, taking her hand into his own. “Maybe that’ll help.”

The two looked at one another, soft smiles tugging at both of their lips.

“We’ll see.”


	27. Stick It To The Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A musical challenge plays to one team's strengths, and showcases hidden talents in others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Musicals and song titles used are the end.

The Saturday that week, three days after the wild King’s Game variant, everyone knew there was going to be some sort of challenge, but had no clue _what_ sort. The only thing they all had had to go off, was the stage that the chickens had been made to build as their penalty. A curtain had since been set up around it, and a couple of stage lights were set up either side.

When announcing the challenge, Chris was in his more formal blue suit and stood atop the stage, Chef behind him in his pink semi-transparent dress, and Don beside him in a grey suit.

“Now, in case you couldn’t tell from the stage and our costumes, today’s challenge is all about performance! As you should all be aware, season three of Total Drama was an unrehearsed musical series, something which many people were fans of. For better or worse…” he cast a brief look at Ella.

“That’s why the next challenge of the Trials is a musical challenge. Working in your superteams, you have to recreate a brief routine from an existing musical, which will be judged by Chris, Chef and myself. Whichever superteam gets the most points for their routine will win!”

“Also, we’ve put two rules in place to make things more like a challenge. First off, the staging and costumes are entirely down to you guys. And secondly, no professional performers are allowed to perform. You can help with choreography, design and all the like, but the actual performance is down to the untalented ones. It’s more fun that way!”

“Right,” Heather had a question, “but who exactly counts as a professional performer?”

Don cleared his throat. “Josee, Jacques, Sayaka, Ibuki, Trent, Topher, Hiyoko, Ella, and for good measure, the Imposter. Bear in mind, we only said _professional_ performers. Also, before anyone says anything, Junko and Justin are models, not actors, singers, or musicians. As we all know, not everyone good-looking is necessarily a gifted performer.” Don side-eyed Chris at this.

“Believe me, I’m all too aware,” he retorted.

“So are they friends or…”

“It doesn’t matter. Get to it! Showcase starts at five!”

* * *

_Awesome Comets (???)_

“Right, you guys.” Kaito volunteered to take the lead in the challenge. “I think it goes without saying, none of us are all that talented when it comes to performing.” Some of the others nodded in agreement. “Is anyone here even able to _name_ a musical?”

The first hand went up.

“One that doesn’t have anything too complex in the song, or dance, department.”

The hand dropped, as Mickey’s went up.

“I remember seeing an unofficial musical about Harry Potter online. Maybe we could do a bit from that one.”

The twenty-one players flocked to the makeshift talent lab – one of few places with wi-fi connection – and crowded round one of the computers as Mickey pulled up the video. A few minutes in, and the rest of the team were starting to buy into it.

“Okay! I love this! Whole team agreed?” Everyone nodded.

“Now for everything else. Anyone who doesn’t want to perform can get the costumes together – black robes, then ties and trimmings in red, yellow, green and blue – and some sticks to use as wands. If we still don’t have enough, we’ll call on you guys as backup.” Only Sakura and Ryoma went off into the woods, with Noah searching the rest of the talent lab.

“Fujisaki, we’re counting on you for the lighting, staging, and a soundtrack. Sound good?”

“I’ll get started on it!”

“Everyone else, let’s get casting!”

…

_Most Dangerous Squad (???)_

“So…anyone know any musicals?”

“There’s Heathers.”

“And…” Silence.

“I think it would be logical to select an extract from a musical not being done by another team, in case we get accused of copying, and are docked points as a result,” Scarlett pointed out.

“And which ones have already been used?”

“The Victorious Secret x Immortals superteam are doing something from Heathers, Hammerheads x Neo Amazons are doing Grease, and Atua’s Followers x Team Victory chose A Chorus Line, I believe.”

Jen volunteered a suggestion. “Anyone ever heard of Bugsy Malone? It’s got all different groups of characters and song styles we can use, so we can do a mash-up of different songs.”

“Okay then! How do you feel like taking on the director role, since you seem to know what you’re doing?”

“Great!” Jen sprang up onto her feet. “Ladies, we need flapper costumes! Four gangster uniforms, suits and hats – Fuyuhiko, I’m believing in you for this. Boxer shorts and gloves, punching bags, a piano for the background, and splurge guns. Seriously, where are we going to find splurge guns?!”

“I can construct something we can use,” Scarlett started scavenging for items.

“If it’s no trouble, may I be in charge of costumes?” Celeste offered. “I would much rather I’m not covered in…splurge.”

“No problem. Anyone else want to bow out?” Nobody came forward. “Great! Now listen up, these are your roles!”

…

_Victorious Immortals (Heathers)_

“Hold up! Why do _they_ get to be the Heathers? Ain’t I good enough?”

“No, Sugar. You ain’t.”

With no one person rising above everyone else in terms of performance ability, everyone just split off and did their own thing. Katie as Veronica, and Tsumugi as Heather Duke, sat back to back and worked on their team’s costumes. Around the pair were Miu and Lindsay (Chandler and MacNamara), and Sadie (Martha), the five of whom were practicing their parts together.

“Grow up, Heather. Bulimia is so ’87.”

“Maybe you should see a doctor, Heather.”

“Yeah, Heather. Maybe I should.”

The group went quiet, Katie soon realising why.

“Oh, shoot! We need a Ms Fleming! Someone grab the Geniuses from set design!”

In the meantime, Ezekiel and Leonard were stood in the middle of the stage, reading over the script.

“Hmmm, I’m not sure if I’m up to this,” Leonard said. “Perhaps if I were to use a voice augmentation spell.”

“You got this! You’re a LARPer, right? So that means you’re an actor, eh?”

“In more formal terms, I suppose. But there’s a great difference between LARPing and playing a jock.” He was tapped on his shoulder. “Oh, apologies, B.” Leonard ducked as B walked past with a large plank of wood.

Elsewhere, the background performers were getting measured for their costume fittings, Ellody (with Mary having been dragged off by the girls) sketching a plan for lighting and set, and Beardo sat on one of the steps to the stage listening to the soundtrack. Clearly, he was to be the sole source of audio.

“I don’t know if splitting up was the best idea for this challenge, eh. I mean, our teams are dead last on the leaderboard. We need to get back up there!”

“None of us can really perform though,” Beth joined the other team leader. “We’ll just have to take it as it comes, and hope Chris isn’t too biased in his judging.”

…

_Golden Huntsmen (???)_

Contrasting everyone else, DJ and Miku were quick to delegate tasks to the rest of their teammates.

“Josee, Jacques, we don’t need much dance work, so you guys are on costume duty!”

“Ibuki, get the sheet music for the musicians!”

“Sayaka, vocal coaching!”

“Kiibo, I know this might be…robophobic stereotyping…but see if you can do something with lighting!”

“Here’s some photos for reference!”

“Right, and make sure Kaede can play this type of music!”

As a smaller group went to the talent lab for props, they discussed their team’s progress.

“They’re really getting into it, Miku and DJ.”

“Even though we’re the ones who know about this sort of thing more than them.”

“Guess both teams got lucky in the leader department.”

“Okay, microphone, drumkit, keyboard…oh man. Only one guitar.”

“No problem,” Ian said. “I have my bass, and Tomoko’s using Ibuki’s.”

“Kay then. Duncan, it’s all yours.”

With the stage in use, the teams used the area around their cabins instead. Costume design took place in the Huntsmen’s side, with set design and the like in the Girls’. Music practice was in the space behind them.

“So Kaede-chan, you need to mostly rely on one hand when playing this. The other one should be waving, punching the air, showing the whole rock star thing! Now try again, doing that.”

Kaede repeated the three chords in question, pumping her fist awkwardly above her head.

“Okay, okay, good. We’re getting there!”

“Heh. Even without the four elite performers,” Duncan said, tuning his guitar, “we’ve got this challenge in the bag. Rock is our thing, and half the others sound like a bunch of strangled cats. No contest.”

A gasp sounded from the Girls’ side. “OCTBI Syndrome!”

“Shut up, Sierra.”

“And all we really need to practice here is the song itself. Everything else should be fine.”

“Duncan!” Above a group of the girls harmonising in the cabin, Josee called through the window. “We need measurements!”

“I’ll be up in a bit.” He set the guitar against the wall and ran round, Ibuki running to stand in front of the remaining players.

“Okay! Let’s see how good you all sound together! Five, six, seven, eight!”

…

_The Hammer-zons (Grease)_

This superteam had already got their costumes together, and pushed everyone who could into performing. Trent and Topher agreed to help choreograph, set up the music track, and the tech design (with some help from Cameron). All their necessary costumes had been surprisingly easy to construct – a few had been pulled from the player’s own wardrobes, with some alterations made by Tom and Kirumi, leaving them with plenty of time to just practice the routine.

Surprising absolutely nobody, Heather and Alejandro were thrown into the lead roles on either side. While the engaged couple were in the middle of their solos, other players took the chance to gossip and whisper about the rehearsals.

“Did we even take a vote on who’d been in the lead roles?”

“No, but let’s face it, I doubt anyone else would want them.”

“We’re never going to be free from this damn engagement, are we?”

“Shut up, shut up! This is everyone!”

Everyone went into the last high notes of the number, some players straining to get it right and having to rush straight for water once the song concluded.

“ _Bueno_ , friends!” Alejandro slipped off his leather jacket temporarily. “And Hiyoko, Topher, the dance routine is exceptional.”

“I don’t need your approval, Al.”

“On that note, Topher, Trent, how’s the rest coming along?”

“You know this isn’t our area of expertise! Cam?”

“I’m on it!”

Alejandro went towards the mess hall. “I’d say we’ve done enough practicing for now. We’re coming up to two pm, so I suggest we take a break, and pick this up in…say 40 minutes?”

“Works for me!”

“Ella, we’ll need the staging set up soon after that.”

“No worries! I’ve already eaten, so I can get to it now.”

“You sure?” Trent asked on his way to the rest of the group. “It’ll be kind of lonely out here by yourself.”

“I’ll join you in a few minutes.”

Although there was still work to be done behind the scenes, the Hammer-zons weren’t worried about their later performance.

…

_Atua’s Victory (A Chorus Line)_

And in direct contrast…

“We have two more hours until we’re supposed to be performing. We have a twelve-minute routine which we’ve been practicing since the beginning. Dave is the only one with no singing and only spoken lines. BUT…” the Imposter immediately switched to rant mode. “Half of you are off-key and off-time. We have no costume designs, _or_ set designs. Our audio track is a second-rate rip from the Internet. In short, we’re screwed.”

Everyone but Dave were slouched on the floor, breathing heavily, the former leaning against the wall with his script.

“At least there’s no solo singing. We have that.”

“If you were so concerned with costumes and the like,” Justin said, “why not sort them while we’re practicing? I’m pretty sure you can make them.”

“Costume is of little concern in this routine. Just go and get some workout clothes from the wizard’s tower.”

Sam scoffed. “Sure. Because we all have those.”

“And I suppose we don’t need much in the way of set. Just maybe a bar at the back for ambience.”

“Then why’d you complain about it?”

“Nyeehh, I need a break.”

“Yumeno-san, you had one before the last practice.”

“I know, but all the dancing’s draining my mana more than usual.”

Akane murmured to no one in particular, “I’m just surprised she’s doin’ it at all. Now when’s the next break?”

The Imposter groaned. “I guess we can fit another ten minutes in.” _We’re doomed_.

* * *

“And time! Victorious Immortals, please vacate the stage!”

Now in front of the stage was a desk area for the three judges, with a viewing pit for everyone else behind them. Most of the others, in full costume, were in the pit waiting for their turn to perform.

“Okay, people! We drew lots while you guys were rehearsing to figure out the order. Awesome Comets, you’re up first! And remember, try and keep it between five and seven minutes.”

Sakura and Chihiro were quick to set up the background set, before Chihiro rushed to the back of the pit. There, the whole tech grid had been set up for mics, audio, lighting and the like.

The first light came up, revealing Shuichi sat in the middle of the stage, atop a suitcase. His black cloak costume was decked in red trimmings, a pair of circular glasses and a pencilled-on scar on his face. The music was a sombre guitar rendition of the Harry Potter theme, until Shuichi started singing (oddly well):

_Underneath these stairs, I hear the sneers and feel the glares  
Of my cousin, my uncle, and my aunt  
Can’t believe how cruel they are, and it stings my lightning scar  
To know they’ll never, ever give me what I want  
I know I don’t deserve these awful rules made by the Dursleys here on  
Privet Drive  
Can’t take these stupid muggles, but despite all of my struggles  
I’m still alive _

The lyrics garnered a few laughs, and they only picked up when it was revealed Makoto was in the role of Ron, Peko in the role of Hermione, and Sky in the role of Ginny. Not due to performance – sure, Peko was forcing her performance, but it wasn’t awful – but because of how little most of the cast fit their roles.

Hina and Maki were alright when they came out, but Kaito and Izzy gave it their all as Cedric and Malfoy, almost to the point of parody. Mondo, Eva and Ryoma had the simple task of shouting their lines, which suited Eva to a T. And Owen as Dumbledore…

_Welcoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooome…  
*toot* _

Owen’s perfectly timed post-solo fart triggered an even louder laugh from the crowd and cast alike, as well as Owen himself. Despite that, the team managed to continue to the end of the number without a hitch, having Don on his feet.

“Bravo! That was a fun one!”

“I agree! You owned the routine, perfectly suited! If anything, the dance was a little stodgy in places, and a few of you were noticeably off, and I’ve just now noticed Izzy _is_ a professional performer, technically speaking…but good job! I give that a solid seven!”

“An eight from me!”

Chef held up a seven card.

“Coming to a final score of 22 out of 30. Great start to the challenge!”

…

“Five to seven minutes? _Five to seven minutes?!_ We’re _so_ screwed!”

“And up next, we have Atua’s Victory, with a routine from _A Chorus Line_. Hopefully the performance is better than their superteam name!”

The Imposter groaned and jumped down to the pit area. “Justin, take the lead. You’re the closest to a performer we have, so make any cuts you see fit. Everyone else, follow him.”

That turned out to be a huge mistake.

“Again! Step, kick, kick, leap, kick, touch! Again! Step, kick, kick, leap, kick, touch!” Dave was at home barking orders while watching his teammates about to fall on their faces. “Right! That connects with, turn, turn, out, in, jump, step, step, kick, kick, leap, kick, touch! Got it?”

So far, the group was doing alright. This part was practically engraved in their heads at this point, and were following Dave’s vocal cues to keep up, rather than memory.

“Do the whole combination facing away from the mirror, from the top. 5! 6! 7! 8!”

And it started. There were kicks to the head, slaps to the face, stumbling, everything that could go wrong without anyone actually falling over. And by the time the singing came along, it only got worse – half the team missed their cue, the rest were out of key, and they were short a person.

As Angie got closer to Dave, he looked around the stage and quickly whispered in her ear. “Where the hell is Himiko?!”

“Angie doesn’t know.”

The answer was clear when the routine reached the group stages.

“Number 23, upstage.” Nobody came out. “Number 23, uh…” Dave remembered, then looked directly backstage. “Himiko, that’s your cue!”

The magician came running into position. “Nyeeh…number 23…”

Despite every conceivable error, they managed to shorten the length from twelve to seven minutes, every new mistake prompting an on the spot line delivery from Dave. As they reached the end, the applause was very much scattered.

“Well…that was interesting.”

“Look, I know making mistakes is par for the course with this number, but they should be few and far between! And at least those people could still sing and dance overlooking the mistakes!”

“That being said…Dave. Something tells me most of that wasn’t in the script.”

“Trust me. It wasn’t.”

“Impressive improv.”

“That was still terrible.” Chef reached for his board. “Two from me.”

“Gotta agree. Only worth a three for me.”

Don disagreed every so slightly. “The singing and dancing sucked, but Dave did a great job with the acting, so I’ll give it a four!”

“Bringing the total to a measly nine points. Hammer-zons, let’s see if you can improve!”

…

The only staging consisted of fake bleachers and circular cafeteria tables. All the girls were sat around two tables, with the guys on the bleachers. Although everyone was to have a part in the performance, big or small, Alejandro/Cody/Mike/Rodney headed the boys, Heather/Carrie/Mahiru/Sammy the girls.

All the main actors ended up being decent singers, and the entire team (while a little stiff and uncertain in places) flowed during the dance bits. Add to that, Heather and Alejandro’s natural chemistry, and there was very little that the team could actually be faulted on.

Despite how everyone felt about the superteam’s members, especially the to-be-weds, everyone watching couldn’t help but applaud by the end.

All the judges looked at one another, before raising their scores together, revealing nines across the board. “Twenty-seven points! Nicely done!”

…

“September 1st, 1989. Dear Diary…”

It was no secret that, although not actually assigned by Chris, the least popular/most annoying players in Total Drama history, and some of the Hope’s Peak outcasts, formed these two teams. Most were renowned for the sole character trait of being an annoyance to everyone, but it turned out this challenge had a few surprises.

Katie’s work on the costumes, and in the lead role, impressed everyone watching, Although they weren’t the best singers, Miu/Tsumugi/Lindsay were alright as the titular trio. Beardo sat on the stairs somehow doing _all_ of the music by himself, without passing out from a lack of oxygen, and Ezekiel wasn’t the worst at acting.

But Leonard one-upped him. Nobody expected the LARPer to be in the role of a jerk jock, let alone do it well – to the point where some people were questioning whether that even _was_ Leonard.

Although their overall performance was on par with a middle school production, it was at least organised, and generally better than Atua’s Victory. Even the judges were mildly impressed.

“Leonard, gotta hand it to you. We may have finally found the one thing you’re good at! That being said, I’d still give it only a five.”

“Six.”

“Five.”

“That makes sixteen out of thirty. Not too shabby. For you guys, anyway.”

…

After the MDSquad were introduced, the curtains to the stage drew back, revealing an on-stage replica of a 20s club. Ryan sat off to the side in front of a piano (so obviously miming over the music track), and his size made that an unintentionally hilarious sight. On what would be the stage were Jen, Junko, Dakota, Chiaki, Sonia, and Mikan, all dressed in flapper outfits and performing a tap routine. Mikan stumbled constantly over her steps, but that was to be expected from her at this point.

While the routine went on, Komaru (in a suit and trilby) and Toko were having some kind of plot related conversation, unheard to everyone.

“Don, are they meant to be the leads?” Chris asked his rival.

“I…think so?”

The second number in their medley scrapped the stage set-up, replacing it with a street. Stood in the middle were Hajime, Nagito, Fuyuhiko and Kazuichi, all in matching gangster attire. The four had really gotten into their dance routine, no matter how it looked or sounded, which would hopefully give them extra points.

Song three took place in a boxing ring set, and like the first one, was led by Ryan. Around the set were all the rest of the Lightning Squad who refused to sing in the lead, dressed in boxer attire. There was one last one that came out of nowhere with all the members of both teams singing together and shooting each other with their whipped cream guns.

Like with the previous performance, they certainly weren’t the worst, but nobody could really understand the plot of whatever musical they were doing, a sentiment shared by the judges.

“I got gangsters, Rocky, then a food fight?”

“Again, at least it wasn’t Atua’s Victory! Judges?” The three held up their boards. “Three sevens, bringing your score to twenty-one. Not bad!”

…

“And we’re down to the final superteam! Can the Golden Huntsmen claim a victory? Let’s find out! Give it up, for the School…of…Rock!”

The curtains behind Chris drew open, revealing another set with next to no furnishing. Leon stood at the front behind a microphone, Ian and Tomoko behind him to the left, Duncan to the right. On raised platforms at the very back were Shinjiro at a drumkit, and Kaede at a keyboard. Off to the far right of the stage were Leshawna, Miku, Amy, Bridgette and Kitty. Every one of them were in a more jazzed-up, rock-esque version of the Hope’s Peak Academy school uniform.

Right off the bat, the crowd were thinking _Punk Division ft. The Huntsmen and Golden Girls_.

Clearly, this particular bit had been the perfect choice for Leon in particular. At the very least, if acting was involved, he could pretend it was just another performance with the band, which he did.

_Baby, we was makin' straight A's  
But we were stuck in a dumb daze  
Don't take much to memorize your lies  
I feel like I've been hypnotisized  
And then, that magic man, he come to town.  
Woo-Wee! He come n spun my head around  
He said "Recess is in session,  
Two and two make five."  
And now, baby, oh, I'm alive.  
Ah Yea! I’m alive! _

As evidenced from their past performances, Ian, Tomoko and Shinjiro played their instruments well, as did Duncan, and Kaede had evidently learned a lot from Ibuki in the last few hours. The group of girls in the corner, thanks to Sayaka’s help, harmonised along with the number, and Leshawna’s solo bit was made better by the fact the Ice Dancers managed to ‘choreograph’ her part…meaning they made it so she wouldn’t be doing any real dancing.

Unlike with the previous performances, these ones could be enjoyed by everyone watching, someone even having randomly produced glowsticks. As the song ended, the crowd again erupted into cheers, the judges included, waving their scorecards in the air.

“Ten, ten, ten! Full thirty points! The Golden Huntsmen win the challenge!”

“Whoo!” Leon grabbed the guitar from Duncan and smashed it in two.

“Wait a minute, how’s that fair?” A discontented Heather spoke up. “They didn’t even have everyone performing in their team!”

The whole time, DJ, Geoff, Brody, Kokichi and Sierra had sat out along with the forbidden members.

“Hey, every band needs groupies and hype-men! Besides, did I ever say _everyone_ had to perform?”

…

After dinner, with the rest of the players having returned to their living quarters a while ago, the Golden Huntsmen stayed behind and ate whatever leftovers Owen and Sugar hadn’t got their hands on, as celebration for their second victories.

“I’ll admit, both our teams work oddly well together.”

“Were you expecting anything different? You girls have female Geoff, Leon’s girlfriend, Jacques’ partner, and the future Mrs Costello.” Both Ian and Miku blushed and looked away from everyone. “But let’s face it, it was mostly Leon and the band that got us the victory this time.”

“Hey! Kaede-chan and Ibuki helped too!”

“If I didn’t tell Kii-boy how to properly build the sets, it would have collapsed and ruined everything.”

“It would have been better still if you had actually assisted with constructing it.”

“Not to mention my killer vocals!”

“I think the real heroes of your part were the Ice Dancers. Yeah, I said it.” A piece of pizza from Leshawna’s plate went flying into Amy’s face.

“Fair to say, not all of us are necessarily _friends_ at this point,” Kitty said, glaring towards both Ice Dancers, “but at the very least, alliance? The Golden Girls help the Huntsmen win, and the Huntsmen help the Golden Girls win.”

“Kinda illogical, since only one team can win at a time, but sure, we’ll help you get to the top two. And from there, may the best team win.”

“I’m down for that.”

Duncan, having been in the kitchen until now, returned with a crate of soda drinks, slamming it onto the table and distributing them.

“Fellow Huntsmen, ladies of the Golden Girls,” Duncan stood atop the group’s table with can in hand, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful alliance.”

“Alright, we’ve just finished with the musicals. Don’t go bringing other movies into the mix.”

DJ raised a glass of soda. “Here’s to the Golden Huntsmen, and our climb to first and/or second place!”

“To the Golden Huntsmen!”

“To the gold!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Comet + Awesome Athletes - Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts (AVPM)  
> Team Victory 2.0 + Atua's Followers - I Hope I Get It (A Chorus Line)  
> Hammerheads + Neo Amazons - Summer Nights (Grease)  
> Immortals + Victorious Secret - Beautiful (Heathers - what is this, the fourth time I've referenced it in this whole series? Christ)  
> Lightning Squad + MDS - Fat Sam's Grand Slam, Bad Guys, So You Wanna Be a Boxer, You Give a Little Love (Bugsy Malone)  
> Huntsmen + Golden Girls - Rock Got No Reason (School of Rock The Musical)  
> Also, as a reminder...OCTBI syndrome = "Over-Confident, Then Blowing It" syndrome (from TDWT)


End file.
